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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/biographicalgene01floy 


COLONEL  JOHN  FLOYD1 
1751-1783 

NATHANIEL  FLOYD1  DR.  N.  W.  FLOYD2 

1767-1842  1793-1866 

GOVERNOR  JOHN  FLOYD2  GENERAL  JOHN  B.  FLOYD3 

1783-1837  1807-1863 


BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


OF  THE 


VIRGINIA-KENTUCKY 
FLOYD  FAMILIES 


WITH  NOTES  OF  SOME  COLLATERAL  BRANCHES 


BY 

N.  J.  FLOYD 

Author  of  “The  Last  of  the  Cavaliers ” 


1912 

WILLIAMS  AND  WILKINS  COMPANY 
BALTIMORE 


COPYRIGHT,  I Q I  2 
N.  J.  FLOYD  BOWMAN 


COMPOSED  AND  PRINTED 
AT  THE 

WAVERLY  PRESS 
BY  THE 

WILLIAMS  AND  WILKINS  COMPANY 
BALTIMORE 


HE  FLOWERS  COLLECTION 

I  ?29.  - 

I  F  G  4  5  * 

CONTENTS 


PAGES 


Mythology,  tradition  and  history .  5-7 

About  crests,  coat  armor,  etc .  8-9 

A  new  crest  for  an  old  coat-of-arms .  1 1 

A  perverted  tradition  corrected .  13 

Record  of  Powhatan’s  youngest  daughter,  Cleopatra .  14 

Early  adventures  of  Colonel  John  Floyd1 .  16 

John  and  Charles  Floyd1,  and  winning  of  the  West  during  Revolutionary  war 

times .  19 

Death  of  Charles  Floyd2  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Exploring  Expedition,  1804 .. .  29 

The  first  white  man’s  grave  in  a  vast  wilderness .  31 

Revolutionary  times  at  Mount  Vernon — 

Anecdote  of  Mrs.  Washington .  33 

Descendants  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  N.  W.  Floyd .  35 

Major  William  Kennon  and  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence 

(footnote) .  42 

How  it  came  about  that  a  duly  sober  officer  fell  more  than  once  during  the 

Battle  of  Fredericksburg .  45 

A  novel  interview  between  General  R.  E.  Lee  and  a  wounded  officer  at  Gettysburg  46 
Did  General  Grant  expect  to  capture  Richmond  within  ten  days?  (footnote) .  .  47 
Tragic  end  of  an  honored  Stradivarius  Cremonensis,  flippantly  slandered  as  an 

“  Old  Rebel  Fiddle” .  49 

A  bauble  of  happier  days  becomes  “a  friend  in  need” .  50 

Major-General  Carlos  T.  Polignac,  a  young  French  prince  commanding  Second 

Infantry  Division,  C.S.A.,  Trans-Mississippi  Army .  50 

Suspicions  respecting  a  conspiracy  to  unite  with  Emperor  Maximilian  and 

found  a  great  Trans-Mississippi  Empire .  51 

The  informal  and  chaotic  ending  of  military  affairs  in  the  Trans-Mississippi 

Department,  C.S.A .  52 

A  novel  bridal  tour  and  a  new  start  in  life  under  peculiar  difficulties .  53 

Is  the  time  honored  maxim  that  “A  brave  people  honor  a  gallant  foe,”  really 

true? . 54 

Nothing  to  do  but  “  mark  time”  and  wait .  54 

The  Adams  coat-of-arms .  58 

The  campaign  song  which  gave  inspiration  to  the  Federal  armies  throughout  the 

war  between  the  States .  65 

Descendants  of  Colonel  John  Floyd  and  his  wife  Sallie  Buchanan .  73 

Descendants  of  Governor  John  Floyd  and  his  wife  Letitia  Preston .  77 

Special  Mention — Major  General  John  Buchanan  Floyd .  81 

If  Fort  Donelson  was  “  not  tenable,  and  already  virtually  lost,”  why  was  General 

Floyd  ordered  there  at  the  eleventh  hour? . 85 

An  advantage  won  at  a  fearful  cost  of  blood,  lost  by  a  blunder .  86 

General  Floyd  put  in  command  of  Nashville  and  brings  order  out  of  chaotic  con¬ 
ditions . V . , .  88 

The  State  of  Virginia  resents  an  indignity  wantonly  put  upon  one  of  her  sons. ...  90 

3 


268140 


4 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The  faint-shadow  of  a  counter  revolution  (footnote) .  go 

Descendants  of  Nathaniel  Floyd1  and  his  wife  Virginia  White .  92 

An  old  map  which  disproves  a  ghoulish  slander  put  upon  Virginia  and  her  dis¬ 
tinguished  son,  General  George  Rogers  Clark .  98 

Decendants  of  Sallie  Floyd1  and  her  husband  Wyatt  Powell — Amherst  County, 

Va .  99 

The  Marye  homestead  at  Fredericksburg . ior 

Appendix 

Descendants  of  Elizabeth  Floyd  Tuley . 107 

The  Georgia  Floyds . 108 

Governor  Charles  M.  Floyd  of  New  Hampshire . 109 

“The  rank  is  but  the  guinea’s  stamp” . no 

A  grandfather’s  privilege . 113 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  group  picture  of  early  Virginia-Kentucky  Floyds . Frontispiece 

PAGES 

Pen  and  ink  sketch  of  Charles  Floyd,  a  soldier  of  the  American  Revolution ....  26 

A  group  of  four  brothers  who  served  in  the  armies  of  the  Confederate  States ...  70 

The  Floyd  coat-of-arms .  no 


BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES  OF  THE  VIRGINIA- 
KENTUCKY  FLOYD  FAMILIES 


“Honor  thy  Father  and  thy  Mother  that  thy  days  may  be  long  in  the  land 
which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee.” 

The  scholarly  author  of  “The  Genesis  of  the  United  States” 
tells  us  that  the  cultivation  of  family  history  is  one  of  the  essen¬ 
tials  to  the  welfare  of  society.  That  the  continued  existence  and 
prosperity  of  every  nation  depend  upon  love  of  country  and  pride 
of  race,  which  are  the  necessary  elements  of  all  true  patriotism. 

Having  been  for  many  years  imbued  with  similar  sentiments, 
the  writer  has  felt  impelled  to  undertake  the  arduous  task  of 
developing  from  the  befogging  mists  of  many  traditions,  and  the 
uncertainties  of  conflicting  genealogies,  as  clear  and  accurate  an 
account  of  the  origin  and  history  of  his  branch  of  the  Floyd  family 
as  may  now  be  possible.  And  he  has  yielded  to  the  impulse. 

Beginning  with  the  nationality  of  the  Floyds  he  finds  that  the 
Welsh  people,  according  to  the  writings  of  some  of  the  most  pro¬ 
found  archaeologists  of  the  present  age,  possess  the  only  living 
language  which  has  been  handed  down  to  the  present  day  through 
recognizable  congeneric  gradations  from  the  dialect  that  was  spoken 
by  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Uranus  and  Gaea — the  Titans, 
Saturn,  Jupiter,  Hercules  and  other  old  aristocrats  of  the  poly¬ 
theistic  period.  They  virtually  claim  that  at  the  beginning  of 
time,  when  “the  Morning  Stars  sang  together,”  it  was  the  Cym- 
rian  dialect  which  furnished  a  human  note  to  “the  Music  of  the 
Spheres.”  That  in  the  course  of  slowly  revolving  ages,  the  Cym- 
rian  grew  into  the  Amoric  dialect  and  the  Amoric  into  the  Cam¬ 
brian  tongue,  which  the  Cambrian  Britons  molded,  as  the  multi¬ 
plied  centuries  dragged  their  slow  length  along,  into  the  present 
Welsh  language — the  one  and  only  living  literary  and  oral  link 
connecting  the  practical  present  with  the  most  distant  ages  of  the 
past,  when  great  hunters,  fierce  warriors  and  strenuous  female 
forerunners  of  the  twentieth  century  suffragettes,  were  silhouetted 
as  gods  and  goddesses  in  the  first  faint  light  of  dawning  tradition. 

S 

2  6  8 1 4  0 


6 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


Among  them — not  the  mythological  notables,  nor  yet  the  Cam¬ 
brian  Britons,  but  the  ancient  Welsh  people,  a  tradition,  accepted 
by  most  branches  of  the  Floyd  family,  is  to  the  effect  that  the  earli¬ 
est  known  Floyd  ancestor  was  one  Llewellwyn  ab  Flloyd,  a  poet 
and  also  a  prince,  belonging  to  the  reigning  family  of  Wales,  who 
was  put  to  death  when  Edward  the  First  of  England  decreed  the 
slaughter  of  the  patriotic  bards  of  subjugated  Wales  in  the  thir¬ 
teenth  century. 

Diligent  search  through  musty  tomes  brought  no  light  on  that  or 
any  cognate  fact,  save  the  mere  mention  of  the  slaughter  of  the 
Welsh  bards;  and  the  searcher  was  compelled  to  come  back  home 
and  seek  information  among,  and  about,  less  important  personages 
than  Welsh  bards  and  poet  princes. 

The  general  trend  of  all  Virginia  and  Georgia  traditions  and 
genealogies  leads  back  to  two  Floyds  who  landed  at  Jamestown 
something  over  a  dozen  years  after  its  settlement,  as  the  pro¬ 
genitors  of  the  family  in  the  South.  Their  names  are  given  as 
Nathaniel  and  Walter.  A  patient  and  exhaustive  research  among 
old  records  that  have  been  preserved  of  Jamestown  and  the 
early  settlements  of  Virginia,  revealed  the  fact  that  in  1623  a  record 
was  made  of  the  arrival  from  Wales  of  “Nathaniel  Floyd,  age 
twenty-four  years,  in  his  own  vessel,  the  “Nova,”  bringing  16 
other  persons.”  With  one  single  exception,  which  will  be  noticed 
later,  there  is  no  record  found  of  any  other  Floyd  landing 
upon  the  shores  of  Virginia.  We  find  the  name  mentioned  with 
increasing  frequency  after  the  middle  of  that  century,  but  always, 
and  only,  in  connection  with  some  professional,  business,  or  public 
enterprise  or  duty.  One  well  buttressed  genealogy,  however,  goes 
back  only  as  far  as  1675  when  several  Floyds  settled  in  Accomac 
County,  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Virginia,  “bringing  their  coat- 
armor  with  them,”  and  accepts  these  as  the  original  immigrants. 
But  there  is  no  room  for  reasonable  doubt  that  they  were  grand¬ 
sons  of  Nathaniel — perhaps  one  of  them  of  Walter.  And  it  is 
quite  certain  that  John,  the  elder  of  the  party,  was  the  grand¬ 
father — possibly  the  father — of  William  of  Amherst  (1720-1789) 
from  whom  all  the  Virginia-Kentucky  Floyd  families  are  de¬ 
scended. 

Though  the  name  of  Nathaniel’s  brother,  Walter,  is  not  men¬ 
tioned,  it  seems  that  he  accompanied  him,  and  that  they  used  the 
Nova  for  a  number  of  years  in  trading  with  the  home  country. 
This  theory  is  partly  substantiated  by  the  fact  that  not  until  1632 
did  Walter  patent  400  acres  of  land  in  “Martin’s  Hundred,” 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY  AND  TRADITION 


7 


and  it  was  five  years  later  when  Nathaniel  patented  850  acres  in 
Isle  of  Wight  County.  Previous  to  these  purchases  the  brothers 
took  possession  of  an  island  on  the  Virginia  coast  which  became 
known  as  “Hog  Island”  and  is  still  so  called.  In  1653  a  relative 
of  theirs,  Richard  Floyd,  came  out  with  a  view  of  investing  his 
patrimony.  After  a  visit  at  Jamestown  he  went  north  and 
settled  on  Long  Island.  It  is  believed  he  was  the  immigrant  ances¬ 
tor  of  William  Floyd,  a  New  York  signer  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence. 

The  father  of  the  two  young  men,  Nathaniel  and  Walter,  was  a 
man  of  some  wealth  and  distinction.  His  name  was  John  Floyd, 
born  in  Wales  about  1570.  From  information  and  intimations 
gathered,  here  and  there,  in  an  exhaustive  and  persistent  search 
into  old  historical  and  genealogical  writings,  it  is  gathered  that 
when  less  than  eighteen  years  of  age  he  fought,  as  a  volunteer,  with 
the  forces  of  Queen  Elizabeth  in  the  destruction  of  the  Spanish 
Armada,  which  fearfully  menaced  the  existence  of  the  English 
government.  In  the  extreme  national  peril  Queen  Elizabeth 
had  appealed  to  every  subject,  able  to  bear  arms,  to  offer  his  life 
upon  the  altar  of  patriotism.  The  young  man  was  knighted  by 
the  Queen,  and  later  married  a  lady  of  her  household,  who  lived 
only  a  few  years,  and  left  him  with  a  family  of  small  children.  He 
had  already  become  a  writer  of  some  note  and  his  proclivities 
being  entirely  of  a  literary  character  he  became  deeply  interested 
in  the  writings  of  Ignatius  of  Loyola,  whose  doctrine  had  been 
recently  promulgated,  and  he  finally  became  a  writer  and  lecturer 
in  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

During  the  same  period  we  find  Henry  Floyd — probably  a 
brother — doing  earnest  and  able  work  in  England  as  a  Jesuit 
missionary. 

But  a  more  versatile  writer  than  either  was  found,  about  the 
same  period,  in  Thomas  Floyd,  a  modern  “Welsh  bard,” 
who,  though  he  wrote  in  a  less  poetic  period,  was,  doubtless,  as 
accomplished  a  bard  as  his  reputed  princely  ancestor  who  died 
for  his  stubborn  and  ineffective  loyalty  to  family  and  race.  His 
poems  were  published  in  Latin,  as  was  then  a  Welsh  custom,  and 
translated  into  other  languages.  He  was,  however,  more  gener¬ 
ally  noted  for  prose  works,  published  in  both  Welsh  and  English, 
one  of  which  was  entitled  “  A  Picture  of  a  Perfect  Commonwealth.” 
This  created  quite  a  stir  in  Great  Britain,  not  only  on  account  of 
the  alleged  revolutionary  doctrines  advanced,  but  also  because 
many  wise  and  thoughtful  men,  of  that  somewhat  embryonic 


8 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


period  in  the  gradual  growth  of  self-government  ideas,  were  deeply 
impressed  by  the  wisdom  of  his  political  philosophy.  The  leading 
thought  of  the  work  was  the  theory  that  mankind  could  never 
achieve  perfection  in  government  until  the  common  people  should 
achieve  the  right  to  appoint  their  own  rulers,  and  to  make  laws 
giving  to  all  classes  and  conditions,  perfect  equality  in  the  benefits 
and  privileges,  as  well  as  in  the  duties  and  obligations,  of  citizenship. 

To  return  to  the  Virginia  family:  an  old  writer  on  heraldry  and 
genealogies  already  alluded  to,  says:  “The  Floyds  date  back  to 
the  early  Virginia  Colony  since  1675  when  three  brothers,  William, 
Charles  and  Frederick  Floyd,  settled  in  Accomac  County,  from 
whom  many  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of  Virginia  and  other 
States  have  descended.  They  brought  with  them  their  coat-armor 
described  as:  1  Argent,  a  cross,  sable;  Crest;  A  Griffin  sejant,  azure, 
holding  in  dexter  paw  a  garland  of  laurel,  vert.’  No  motto  but  their 
arms  distinguished  them  in  England  as  previous  to  Queen  Eliza¬ 
beth.”  Another  genealogist  speaks  of  these  three  and  states  that 
John  Floyd  joined  them  and  bought  2200  acres  of  land  in  Accomac 
and  Northampton  Counties.  He  speaks  of  the  belief,  on  the  part 
of  some  descendants,  that  the  three  came  directly  from  Wales,  but 
expressed  doubts  on  that  point  and  felt  satisfied  that  John  was 
a  grandson  of  the  first  immigrant,  Nathaniel.  The  fact  is  there 
is  no  evidence,  circumstantial  or  other,  to  cause  a  doubt  that  all 
four  of  them  were  grandsons  of  Nathaniel  and  his  brother  Walter 
who  were  tobacco  planters,  and  the  young  men  had  left  the  thin 
lands  of  Isle  of  Wight  County,  where  the  grandfather  Nathaniel 
settled,  for  the  more  fertile  lands  of  the  Eastern  Shore — tobacco 
being  the  chief,  if  not  the  only,  “  money  crop”  of  the  Colony.  The 
“coat-armor”  which,  as  stated,  they  “brought  with  them”  was 
merely  a  rude  and  not  entirely  correct  drawing  made,  doubtless, 
by  one  of  the  young  men  from  the  heraldic  description  brought 
over  by  his  grandfather  Nathaniel. 

The  wording  of  the  description  given  above  is  in  accordance 
with  that  recorded  in  the  Heralds’  College  in  England,  except  that 
in  describing  the  laurel  the  latter  has  the  heraldic  abbreviation 
“ppr.”  instead  of  the  word  “vert.”  Of  course  both  mean  the 
same  thing;  but  some  radical  errors  have  been  committed  in  blazon¬ 
ries,  made  by  different  persons,  from  a  misinterpretation  of  a 
heraldic  word  or  a  misunderstanding  of  some  fixed  law  of  heraldry. 
The  most  serious  error  is  found  in  the  blazonry  supposed  to  have 
been  made  by  John  Floyd  of  Accomac  in  1675  which  resulted  from 
his  giving  the  heraldic  word  “sejant”  the  definition  belonging  to 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY  AND  TRADITION 


9 


the  similar  word  “segreant.”  The  first  means  “sitting  as  a  lion,” 
and  the  other  “sitting  as  an  animal  of  the  genus  Kanguri.”  The 
misapplied  definition  made  the  graceful  Griffin  quite  an  ungrace¬ 
ful  animal.  Another  serious  error— which,  however,  was  an  error 
only  on  account  of  the  Procrustean  nature  of  modern  heraldic 
law — was  the  blazoning  of  the  Latin  instead  of  the  Greek  cross. 
Since  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  heraldic  custom  has  required  the 
Greek  cross.  Yet  if  the  faint  ghost  of  family  tradition,  which 
has  come  down  from  the  forgotten  past,  be  true,  the  family  had  a 
right,  which  was  also  then  a  custom,  to  blazon  on  their  shields 
a  cross  which  was  not  a  Greek  cross,  ages  before  our  John  fought 
the  Spanish  Armada — even  before  the  time  of  the  Crusades — 
indeed,  before  heraldry  became  a  science.  As  early  as  A.D. 
843  one  Roderic,  Prince  of  Wales,  blazoned  as  his  escutcheon  a 
device  described,  in  heraldic  terms,  as  11  Azure;  A  Cross,  Patlee 
Fichee;  or.”  This  blazon,  archaeologists  say,  is  traceable  back  to 
one  Arviragus,  the  first  Prince  of  Wales  A.D.  45.  If  that  cross, 
probably  the  first  ever  blazoned  upon  an  escutcheon,  had  to  be 
classified  now  it  would  be  called  a  Latin  cross. 

Another  error  has  been  the  blazoning  of  the  griffin  with  claws 
of  an  eagle  instead  of  the  forepaws  of  a  lion.  This  is  a  permissible 
departure  in  heraldry,  on  account  of  the  griffin  being  a  mythical 
animal,  with  which  artists  may  take  liberties.  In  modern  times 
many  take  that  liberty,  but  it  is  believed  not  to  have  been  done 
before  or  during  Queen  Elizabeth’s  time.  In  the  thirteenth 
edition  of  “Family  crests  comprising  every  prominent  family  of 
England,  Wales,  Scotland  and  Ireland,”  published  by  Reeves  and 
Turner,  No.  196,  Strand,  London,  the  Floyd  griffin  is  pictured 
with  eagle’s  claws.  But  an  old  edition  of  “Fairbairn’s  Crests  of 
Great  Britain,”  revised  by  Laurence  Butts,  “Seal  Engraver  in 
ordinary  to  the  Queen  of  Scotland,;”  gives,  in  a  brief  note,  a  neat 
sarcasm  intended  for  English  heraldists,  which  may  explain  the 
appearance  of  eagle’s  claws  upon  the  Floyd  griffin.  He  says: 
“It  will  occasionally  be  found  that  reference  is  made  to  crests 
which  do  not  exactly  agree  with  the  description.  Heraldic 
Painters,  Engravers,  Chasers,  etc.,  for  whose  benefit  this  has  been 
done,  will  appreciate  its  value.”  That  is,  if  one  desires  to  be  assured 
that  his  coat  of  arms  is  perfectly  correct,  as  pictured  in  works  on 
heraldry,  he  must  employ  an  artist  who  is  also  a  heraldist  to  make 
a  special  blazonry  from  the  heraldic  description  in  the  College  of 
Heraldry,  London. 

As  far  as  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  Floyds  is  concerned,  the  crude 


IO 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


blazonry,  made  by  John  Floyd  of  Accomac,  in  1675,  is  sufficient 
evidence  that  their  griffin  was  originally  blazoned  with  lion’s  paws. 

An  earnest  effort  was  made  to  ferret  out  the  few  names  of  heads 
of  families  between  John  of  Accomac,  1675,  and  William  of  Am¬ 
herst,  1720,  as  well  as  those  before  John,  but  in  those  early  days  in 
America  the  minds  of  immigrants  and  their  immediate  posterity, 
seem  to  have  been  too  fully  occupied  with  present  dangers  and 
difficulties,  and  the  vastness  of  future  possibilities  presented  in  the 
New  World,  to  give  thought  to  less  important  matters. 

The  search  for  information,  however,  was  productive  of  some 
interesting  discoveries  concerning  individual  members  of  some 
collateral  branches  of  the  family.  One  of  these  indicates  that 
use  of  the  old  Floyd  coat  of  arms  had  not  been  entirely  abandoned 
by  one  branch  of  the  descendants  of  the  youthful  Spanish  Armada 
hero,  and  is  of  sufficient  interest  to  justify  its  being  briefly  sketched 
here.  It  seems  that  during  the  American  Revolution,  John 
Floyd, — a  young  ensign  in  the  British  service,  whose  father  had 
been  killed  in  Germany  while  commanding  the  King’s  Dragoon 
Guards,  a  part  of  the  troops  sent  by  Great  Britain  to  aid  Freder¬ 
ick  the  Great  of  Prussia  in  the  “Seven  Years’  War”  with  Austria 
over  the  possession  of  Silesia,  seeing  that  the  three  wars,  in  which 
England  was  engaged,  were  taxing  her  military  resources  to  the 
utmost;  and  fearing,  perhaps,  that  he  might  be  sent  to  fight  the 
descendants  of  his  own  people  in  America,  and  his  own  blood-kin 
in  Virginia,  applied  for,  and  received,  a  commission  to  raise  a 
cavalry  company  especially  for  service  in  India. 

He  quickly  came  to  the  front  among  the  troops  in  that  ancient 
land  and  received  many  promotions.  After  Lord  Cornwallis’ 
failure  in  America,  and  surrender  at  Yorktown,  Virginia,  he  was 
sent  to  India  and  put  in  supreme  military  command  there.  What¬ 
ever  may  have  been  his  other  capabilities  as  a  commander,  he  was 
quick  to  see  young  Floyd’s  military  genius  and  dash;  and  after  a 
time,  put  him  in  command  of  all  the  cavalry  on  the  Coromandel 
coast.  This  was  almost  tantamount  to  putting  him  over  all  the 
active  fighting  force  in  India.  The  cavalry  was  kept  in  almost 
continuous  activity,  and  after  repeated  strenuous  campaigns  the 
perfidious  Sultan  Tippoo  Sahib,  who  had  frequently  broken  faith 
with  the  English,  was  driven  from  the  open  field  into  his  capital, 
Seringapatam,  where,  after  a  gallant  resistance,  he  was  slain.* 

*  “The  English  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,”  vol.  xix,  pp.  345-6, 
says  of  Sir  John  Floyd:  “He  showed  himself  the  most  accomplished  English 
cavalry  commander  who  ever  served  in  the  South  of  India.” 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY  AND  TRADITION 


II 


On  his  return  to  England,  Sir  John  was  received  with  the  greatest 
distinction,  was  made  a  Lieutenant-General  and  a  Baronet,  was 
showered  with  honors,  and,  as  a  crowning  honor,  the  Heralds’ 
College,  by  royal  order,  awarded  him  a  special  crest.  Instead  of 
“A  Griffin,  sejant,  holding  in  dexter  paw  a  garland  of  laurel,”  he 
was  authorized  to  blazon  “  The  British  Lion,  rampant,  holding  in 
dexter  paw  the  conquered  banner  of  Tippoo  Sultaun.” 

He  had  two  daughters,  the  younger  of  whom  married  the  dis¬ 
tinguished  statesman,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the  second  baronet  of  that 
name. 

HEAD  OF  THE  VIRGINIA-KENTUCKY  FAMILIES 

William  Floyd,  the  progenitor  of  the  Virginia-Kentucky  branch 
of  the  family,  was  born  in  Accomac  County,  Virginia,  about  the 
year  1720.  He  was  a  son  or  grandson  (more  likely  the  latter) 
of  John  Floyd,  the  wealthy  owner  of  over  two  thousand  acres  of 
fine  tobacco  land  in  Accomac  and  Northampton  Counties.  He 
received  the  rudiments  of  a  substantial  education,  which  was 
completed  only  in  the  line  of  mathematics.  He  commenced  active 
life  as  a  surveyor  working  in  the  James  River  Valley  from  the 
settlement  at  Richmond  up  to  the  foothills  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains.  In  a  region  w'hich  was  little  more  than  a  primeval 
forest,  now  known  as  Amherst  County,  he  patented  a  body  of 
land  on  which  he  made  a  home  for  himself.  A  dozen  miles  dis¬ 
tant  was  the  commodious  Bungalow  of  Nathaniel  Davis,  a  Welsh¬ 
man  by  descent,  and  one  of  the  very  early  settlers  in  that  region. 
He  had  made  quite  alarge  fortune  by  trading  with  the  Catawba  and 
other  Indians,  and  by  locating  choice  river-bottom  lands  from  the 
present  site  of  Lynchburg  up  to  the  Balcony  Falls.  Mr.  Davis 
had  among  other  children  a  beautiful  daughter  named  Abadiah, 
whom  the  young  man  fell  in  love  with  and  won  for  his  bride.  She 
was  of  excellent  Welsh  ancestry  on  her  father’s  side,  and  one- 
fourth  of  her  blood  on  her  mother’s  side,  was  derived  from  the  most 
distinguished  Indian  ancestry.  Her  mother’s  mother,  Nicketti — 
Indian  equivalent  for  “Beautiful  Flower” — was  a  granddaughter 
of  the  noted  Powhatan  (the  daughter  of  his  youngest  daughter) 
while  the  father  of  Nicketti  was  a  chief  of  the  small  but  warlike 
Cayuga  tribe.  Nicketti,  whom  the  white  people  dubbed  ‘‘Princess 
Nicketti,”  married  a  noted  Scotch  hunter  and  fur  trader  by  the 
name  of  Hughes  who  made  his  chief  headquarters  near  the  beauti¬ 
ful  Balcony  Falls  of  James  River,  where  Nathaniel  Davis  met  and 
married  a  daughter  of  his  who  was  the  mother  of  Abadiah. 


12 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


CHILDREN  OF  NATHANIEL  DAVIS  AND  HIS  WIFE  ELLIZABETH  HUGHES 

1.  Robert  Davis  who  became,  when  quite  young,  his  father’s 
agent  and  assistant  in  business.  On  account  of  his  densely  black 
hair  and  eyes,  and  his  dark  Indian  complexion  he  was  nicknamed 
“the  black  Davis”  to  differentiate  between  him  and  his  fair- 
haired  father.  He  married  quite  young,  and  removed  to  Georgia 
with  his  bride.  After  the  Floyds  went  to  Kentucky  several  of  the 
Davises  removed  there  from  Georgia  and  settled  in  the  eastern 
part  of  Christian  County,  which  part  was  named  Todd  after  the 
division  of  the  county.  One  of  the  descendants,  born  in  Todd 
County  and  carried  to  Mississippi  as  a  weanling,  lived  to  become 
the  President  of  The  Confederate  States  of  America. 

2.  Mary  Davis,  who  married  Samuel  Burkes,  of  Hanover 
County,  the  ancestor  of  several  prominent  Virginia  families. 

3.  Martha  Davis,  who  married  Abraham  Venable,  another 
prominent  family  whose  descendants  number  many  prominent 
persons. 

4.  Abadiah  Davis,  who  married  William  Floyd. 

Nathaniel  Davis’  granddaughter,  Elizabeth  Burks,  married 
Capt.  William  Cabell,  and  they  became  the  ancestors  of  the  dis¬ 
tinguished  Virginia  family  of  that  name. 

Another  granddaughter,  Martha  Venable,  married  General 
Evan  Shelby,  of  Maryland,  and  they  became  the  ancestors  of  the 
noted  family  of  Shelbys  in  the  West.  A  list  of  the  more  or  less 
distinguished  members  of  these  families  would  be  very  lengthy. 

It  may  be  well  to  state,  out  of  its  proper  chronological  order, 
that  many  years  after  the  period  of  the  marriages  of  the  young 
people  noted  above,  the  truth  of  the  tradition  concerning  the  ances¬ 
try  of  Princess  Nicketti  was  denied  in  Kentucky.  The  cause  of 
this  denial  originated  at  the  battle  of  Point  Pleasant  in  1774,  when 
the  allied  tribes,  the  Shawnees,  the  Guyandottes  and  Delawares, 
under  the  great  war-chief,  Cornstalk,  were  defeated  by  the  Vir¬ 
ginians  and  the  Kentucky  pioneers  under  General  Andrew  Lewis. 
Cornstalk  was  regarded  as  a  ferocious  and  vindictive  tool  of  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Canada  and  no  Indian  could  have  been 
more  thoroughly  detested.  Prisoners  taken  in  that  epoch-making 
battle  stated  that  he  was  a  descendant  of  Powhatan,  through 
his  youngest  daughter.*  The  Virginians  and  Kentuckians  who 

*  It  is  quite  probable  that  Cornstalk’s  tradition  was  a  fact.  Although  he 
was  the  great  war-chief  of  the  Shawnees  he  was  not  a  member  of  that  tribe, 
but  was  by  birth  a  chief  of  a  small  tribe  which,  giving  way  before  the 


A  PERVERTED  TRADITION 


13 


admired  the  character  of  the  gentle  Pocahontas  as  cordially  as  they 
despised  Cornstalk,  indignantly  denied  the  tradition,  and  asserted 
that  Pocahontas,  if  not  the  only  daughter  of  Powhatan,  was  cer¬ 
tainly  the  youngest,  and  the  child  of  his  old  age.  When  the  Floyds 
removed  to  Kentucky  and  heard  the  denial,  being  no  longer  in 
touch  with  those  who  knew  the  facts  in  Virginia,  and  therefore  not 
prepared  to  discuss  the  point,  they  simply  ignored  the  matter  and 
“let  it  go  at  that.”  Hence  it  came  about  that  later  generations 
of  nearly  all  the  descendants  of  Nicketti  ultimately  came  to  doubt 
the  perfect  accuracy  of  the  old  tradition,  as  no  historical  or  other 
writing  known  to  them  credited  Powhatan  with  a  younger  daugh¬ 
ter  than  Pocahontas;  nor  had  any  name  been  heard  as  that  of 
such  daughter.  The  descendants  of  Charles  Floyd,  however,  at 
whose  home  in  Kentucky  his  mother,  Abadiah  Davis  Floyd,  died, 
never  for  a  moment  doubted  the  entire  accuracy  of  the  tradition. 

Alexander  Brown — member  of  the  Virginia  Historical  Society; 
the  American  Historical  Association;  and  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Historical  Society  of  England — the  distinguished  author  of  “The 
Genesis  of  the  United  States,”  and  a  high  authority  on  historical 
and  genealogical  subjects,  did  much  to  add  to  the  confusion  of  the 
old  tradition.  In  his  genealogical  work  “The  Cabells  and  their 
Kin”  (descendants  of  Princess  Nicketti,  and  himself  an  honored 
kinsman)  he  gives  the  genealogies  and  traditions  of  the  descend¬ 
ants  of  Nathaniel  Davis  as  they  are  known  to  the  Floyds  with  the 
exception  that,  by  a  supposed  error  in  the  use  of  numerals  to  desig¬ 
nate  generations,  he  makes  the  ancestor  of  Jefferson  Davis  appear 
as  the  uncle  instead  of  the  brother  of  Abadiah.  And  when  he  came 
to  speak  of  the  Indian  blood  he  shied  at  the  tradition  of  a  younger 
sister  of  the  gentle  Pocahontas,  and  said: 

“Opechancanough  had  a  lovely  daughter,  the  child  of  his  old 
age,  the  Princess  Nicketti, which  name  means  ‘  She  sweeps  the  dew 
from  the  flowers.’  A  son  of  one  of  the  old  cavalier  families  fell 
in  love  with  Nicketti  and  they  married  and  had  a  daughter  who 
married  a  Welshman,  Nathaniel  Davis  by  name.” 

advance  of  civilization,  had  straggled  westward  and  become  nomadic — a 
“tramp”  tribe,  which  eventually  disintegrated.  A  scrap  from  old  memoirs 
of  the  Preston  family  says  that  in  1767  Colonels  William  Preston  and  Thomas 
Lewis  were  appointed  to  hold  a  treaty  with  the  Indians  at  the  mouth  of 
Big  Sandy  on  the  Ohio  river.  Though  other  chiefs  were  present,  Corn¬ 
stalk  made  the  treaty  and  seven  years  later  led  the  allied  tribes  which  broke 
it.  Several  histories  of  that  period  speak  of  him  as  “the  masterful  Cayuga 
chief.”  In  that  treaty  he  posed  as  a  representative  of  the  Shawnees  and  the 
Delawares. 


14 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


The  author  evidently  entertained  some  misgivings  regarding 
the  exact  accuracy  of  that  version  of  the  tradition,  but  quietly 
passed  on  with  the  assertion  that  the-  fact  could  not  be  denied  that 
no  lovelier  women  ever  “swept  the  dew  from  the  flowers”  than 
many  of  the  descendants  of  Princess  Nicketti. 

This  perversion  of  the  old  tradition  gives  a  lively  fancy  room  to 
imagine  that  some  one  of  the  Indian-blood  branches — other  than 
the  Floyds — that  is  to  say,  the  Burkses,  the  Venables,  the  Shelbys, 
the  Cabells  or  the  Jefferson  Davis  branch,  might  have  held  a 
family  meeting,  after  the  battle  of  Point  Pleasant,  and  have  recorded 
the  result  somewhat  after  this  style: 

“Whereas:  The  wise  genealogists  residing  in  the  primeval 
forests  of  Kentucky  have  ascertained  that  the  gentle  Pocahontas  never 
had  a  younger  sister,  if  any  sister  at  all,  therefore, 

Resolved:  That  the  Princess  Nicketti  was,  and  of  right  ought  to 
have  been  heralded,  not  the  grandniece  and  ward,  as  has  been  taught, 
by  tradition,  of  her  uncle,  Opecancanough,  but  in  very  fact  his  own 
queenly  daughter — the  child  of  his  very  old  age” 

The  writer,  feeling  confident  that  the  original  tradition  was 
correct,  made  an  exhaustive  search  for  information  on  that  and 
many  similar  matters,  and  finally  found,  in  the  old  library  of  the 
Maryland  Historical  Society,  an  item  of  three  lines  in  a  fragment  of 
Jamestown  records  covering  eleven  years — 1630  to  1641  —  which 
furnished  in  a  positive  and  indisputable  form  the  proof  sought. 
During  the  period,  covered  by  the  fragment,  matters  became  so 
bad  between  the  Whites  and  Indians,  that  Opechancanough 
was  induced  to  agree  upon  a  line  being  established  which  neither 
White  nor  Indian,  excepting  truce-bearers,  should  cross  under 
penalty  of  being  shot  on  sight.  To  insure  strict  obedience  to 
the  compact  a  law  was  passed  at  Jamestown  imposing  a  heavy 
penalty  on  any  of  the  people  crossing  the  line  without  a  special 
permit  from  the  Governor’s  Council  and  the  General  Court.  This 
accounts  for  the  item  alluded  to,  which  is  given  verbatim  et  liter¬ 
atim.  In  the  Council  record  it  reads: 

“Dec.  17th,  1641. — Thomas  Rolfe  petitions  Governor  to  let 
him  go  see  Opechankeno  to  whom  he  is  allied,  and  Cleopatra,  his 
mother’s  sister.” 

The  record  of  the  General  Court  was  evidently  intended  to  be  a 
verbatim  copy,  though  they  differ  somewhat  in  phraseology  and 
spelling : — 

“Dec.  17th,  1641. — Thomas  Rolph  petitions  Gov.  to  let  him 
go  to  see  Opechanko,  to  whom  he  is  allied,  and  Cleopatre,  his 
mother’s  sister.” 


powhatan’s  youngest  daughter,  cleopatra  15 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  when  Pocahontas  died  in  England 
in  1616  her  husband,  John  Rolfe,  left  their  infant  son,  Thomas, 
to  be  reared  and  educated  in  England  by  an  uncle.  Twenty -five 
years  had  elapsed;  the  young  man  had  finished  his  education,  and 
naturally  desired  to  look  upon  the  face  of  his  mother’s  younger 
sister.  That  she  was  younger — seventeen  years  or  more,  younger 
—her  name  proves.  Neither  Pocahontas  nor  her  father  had  ever 
held  communication  with  a  white  person  until  the  two  had  a  little 
controversy  as  to  the  future  fate  of  Captain  John  Smith.  Poca¬ 
hontas  was  then  twelve  years  old,  and  it  is  not  possible  that  she  or 
Powhatan  could  have  previously  heard  the  name  of  the  Egyptian 
queen;  and  it  is  not  likely  that  either  of  them  had  an  opportunity 
to  be  “coached”  upon  Egyptian  history  for  a  number  of  years 
later.  Indeed  it  is  more  than  probable  that  Powhatan  and  his 
people  first  heard  of  the  fascinating  Cleopatra  from  John  Rolfe, 
after  he  had  married  Pocahontas.  What  could  be  more  likely 
than  that  the  young  Englishman  himself  made  selection  of  the 
name,  and  with  his  own  lips  pronounced  the  difficult  foreign  syl¬ 
lables  when  the  gentle-savage  infant  received  her  baptismal  dip 
into  the  purling  water  of  the  James  River,  near  where  Richmond 
city  now  stands? 

William  Floyd  and  Abadiah  Davis  were  married  in  Amherst 
County  in  the  autumn  of  1747.  He  was  county  surveyor  and 
captain  of  the  county  militia,  until  the  beginning  of  the  Revolu¬ 
tionary  War,  when  his  second  son,  Charles,  took  his  place  and  went 
into  the  service  of  Virginia  as  a  part  of  the  State  force,  reserved 
to  beat  back  Indian  forays  along  her  lengthy  northwestern  borders. 
The  children  of  William  and  Abadiah  Floyd  were  twelve  in  number, 
as  follows: 

1.  Sallie  Floyd,  married  Wyatt  Powell  and  became  the  ances¬ 
tress  of  many  noted  people  in  each  succeeding  generation  in  Vir¬ 
ginia.  Some  of  the  latter  will  be  given  special  mention. 

2.  Elizabeth  Floyd,  married  Charles  Tuley,  of  Fauquier 
County,  Virginia.  They  followed  the  Floyd  hegira  to  Kentucky 
but  their  descendants  scattered  throughout  the  northwest.  Will 
be  referred  to  later. 

3.  John  Floyd,  married  Miss  Burford  (in  early  Amherst  ver¬ 
nacular  pronounced  Barfoot  and  Burfoot).  Will  be  spoken  of 
more  fully. 

4.  Charles  Floyd,  married  Mary  Stewart.  Will  be  spoken  o^ 
more  fully. 


l6  FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 

5.  Robert  Floyd.  All  tradition  of  him  lost,  excepting  that  he 
fought  with  George  Rogers  Clark.  Probably  killed  by  Indians 
later. 

6.  Jemima  Floyd,  married - Lemaster.  Tradition 

only  states  that  her  husband  was  killed  by  the  Indians. 

7.  Isham  Floyd,  fought  with  George  Rogers  Clark  at  Kaskas- 
kia  when  quite  a  youth.  Later  was  captured  by  the  Indians  and 
tortured  to  death  by  terrific  barbarities  continued  for  two  days. 

8.  Abadiah  Floyd,  married - Sturgis.  Tradition 

states  only  that  her  husband  was  killed  in  an  Indian  massacre. 

9.  Nathaniel  Floyd,  married  Mary  Thomas.  Did  gallant 
service  under  Jackson  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  1815.  Has 
many  descendants  of  note,  chiefly  in  Maryland  and  Kentucky. 
His  family  genealogy  will  be  given  later. 

There  were  three  daughters  who  are  known  to  tradition  only 
as  Mrs.  Pryor,  Mrs.  Drake  and  Mrs.  Alexander.  They  were  all 
older  than  Nathaniel  who  was  the  twelfth  child.  Mrs.  Pryor  had 
a  son  who  accompanied  his  cousin,  Charles  Floyd,  son  of  Charles 
(1),  on  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition,  in  which  young  Charles 
lost  his  life.  Tradition  says  the  husband  of  one  of  the  three  was 
killed  by  the  Indians. 

It  has  been  stated  that  John  Floyd  married  Miss  Burford. 
Ten  months  after  marriage,  his  wife  died  leaving  an  infant  girl 
which  Mrs.  Burford  adopted  and  named  Mourning.  As  soon  as 
the  young  man  mastered  the  poignancy  of  his  grief  he  went  to 
Fincastle  County  and  applied  to  Colonel  William  Preston,  a  very 
prominent  and  influential  citizen  and  general  surveyor,  for  a  posi¬ 
tion  as  deputy,  to  go  to  work  in  the  wilds  of  Kentucky,  then  a 
county  of  Virginia.  Colonel  Preston,  thinking  him  too  young  to 
take  charge  of  a  surveying  party  among  the  Indians  of  the  Ohio 
Valley,  prevailed  on  him  to  teach  school  and  write  in  the  sur¬ 
veyor’s  office  for  a  few  years.  In  1774,  he  took  a  party  to  Ken¬ 
tucky  as  Colonel  Preston’s  deputy.  He  worked  as  far  down  the 
Ohio  River  as  the  Falls  where  Louisville  is  now  situated,  and 
located  many  fine  bodies  of  land  for  Colonel  Preston  and  others; 
and  near  the  Falls  he  located  a  body  of  several  thousand  acres 
for  himself. 

From  the  Falls  he  went  to  the  Bluegrass  region  where  his  work 
was  much  impeded  by  troubles  with  the  Indians.  He  there  met 
a  former  associate  and  friend  of  the  family,  George  Rogers  Clark, 
also  in  charge  of  a  surveying  party.  But  their  operations  were 


EARLY  DAYS  IN  KENTUCKY 


17 


brought  to  a  sudden  close  by  Daniel  Boone  who  came  as  a  special 
messenger  from  Governor  Dunmore  of  Virginia  to  notify  all  parties 
along  the  Ohio  River  that  the  Indians  of  the  upper  Ohio  region 
were  on  the  war-path;  and  the  whites  were  directed  to  concen¬ 
trate  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kanawha  River.  It  was  there  that 
John  Floyd  and  George  Rogers  Clark — both  born  in  the  same  year 
and  in  adjoining  counties  in  Virginia — took  their  first  serious 
lesson  in  Indian  fighting,  at  the  battle  of  Point  Pleasant,  October 
10,  1774. 

The  young  man  returned  to  Virginia  for  the  winter,  and  in 
the  succeeding  April,  1775,  he  took  a  party  to  central  Kentucky 
where  he  formed  an  association  wdth  the  Henderson  Company,  of 
which  Daniel  Boone  was  a  leading  member.  He  planned  and  super¬ 
vised  the  building  of  the  fort  at  Boonsborough,  and  he  and  Boone 
became  great  friends.  It  was  there  that  an  incident  occurred — 
an  account  of  which,  written  by  young  Floyd  to  Colonel  Preston, 
his  friend  and  patron,  found  its  way  into  the  histories  and  story 
books  of  the  period.  Boone’s  daughter,  Jemima,  and  two  daugh¬ 
ters  of  Colonel  Calloway  went  to  the  forest  to  gather  blossoms. 
They  had  not  returned  at  noon  and  Boone  and  Floyd  went  out  to 
search  for  them.  Their  trail  was  found  and  followed  a  mile  or 
more  to  where  another  trail  intersected  it  and  there  were  scattered 
blossoms.  This  told  them  what  had  occurred,  and  fearing  to 
lose  time  by  returning  to  the  fort  for  assistance,  they  pushed  for¬ 
ward  and  on  the  next  day  came  upon  the  party  of  Indians  who  had 
captured  them  about  forty  miles  from  the  fort.  Several  of  the 
Indians  were  killed  and  the  captives  brought  back  to  the  fort. 

As  soon  as  young  Floyd  learned  that  the  Colonies  would  cer¬ 
tainly  separate  from  the  mother  country  he  returned  to  Virginia 
and,  aided  by  his  stanch  friend,  Colonel  Preston,  and  others,  he 
fitted  out  a  schooner  which  he  named  the  Phoenix  and  on  being 
commissioned,  joined  the  naval  force  of  the  Colonies  as  a  priva¬ 
teer.  After  some  thrilling  experiences  in  the  West  Indies  he 
captured  a  merchantman  so  richly  ladened  that  he  determined 
to  take  her  and  the  cargo  to  Virginia.  But  when  almost  wfithin 
sight  of  the  Virginia  capes  he  was  overhauled  by  a  man-of-war, 
the  prize  retaken,  the  Phoenix  sent  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and 
he  and  his  crew  sent  in  chains  to  England. 

After  languishing  in  prison  for  more  than  a  year  he  was  aided 
in  making  his  escape  by  a  little  daughter  of  the  commandant. 
Begging  his  way  to  Dover,  a  benevolent  clergyman  procured  him 
a  pass  and  a  ticket  across  the  English  Channel.  The  vintage 


iS  FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 

season  had  commenced  in  France,  and  the  vineyardists  did  not 
let  him  suffer  for  grapes,  and  an  occasional  loaf  of  bread,  on  his 
way  to  Paris. 

He  was  received  with  great  cordiality  by  Dr.  Franklin,  our 
Minister  to  France,  who  supplied  his  immediate  needs  and  soon 
furnished  him  with  money  and  such  information  and  papers  as 
were  necessary  to  insure  his  safe  and  speedy  return  home.  Dr. 
Franklin,  in  writing  about  the  incident,  spoke  of  him  as:  ‘An 
earnest  patriot,  and  a  well  informed  young  gentleman.’* 

When  the  young  man  escaped  from  the  English  prison  more  than 
two  years  had  elapsed  since  he  had  made  an  engagement  to  marry 
Miss  Sallie  Buchanan,  the  beautiful  niece  and  ward  of  his  friend, 
Col.  William  Preston,  on  her  birthday.  No  news  of  the  capture 
of  the  Phoenix  having  been  received  in  America,  he  was  believed 
to  have  gone  to  the  bottom  with  his  vessel  and  crew;  and  when  he 
made  his  way  to  Fincastle  County  he  found  his  lady-love  about  to 
be  married  to  a  distant  cousin  of  hers.  This  agreement  was  imme¬ 
diately  annulled  and  on  November  2,  1778,  the  two  lovers  were 
united  in  marriage.  Colonel  Floyd,  having  made  no  arrangement 
for  a  permanent  home,  took  his  bride  to  spend  the  ensuing  winter 
at  his  father’s  home.f 

CHARLES  FLOYD1  AND  MARY  STEWART 

Charles  Floyd  and  Mary  Stewart  were  married  in  Hanover 
Parish  church  in  177 3.  Mary  Stewart  was  a  daughter  of  Captain 
John  Stewart  and  his  wife,  Annie  Haw,  of  Henrico  County.  Tradi¬ 
tion,  preserved  by  the  Virginia  and  Georgia  Stewarts,  states  that 
the  grandfather  of  Mary — Colonel  John  Stewart — who  came  to 
Virginia  from  Berwickshire,  Scotland — was  a  younger  son  of  the 
Duke  of  Berwick,  born  in  Berwick  Castle  about  1660.  On  account 
of  political  troubles  he  fled  from  the  coast  of  England  in  the  night 
and  landed  in  the  New  World  with  only  his  sword  and  a  stout  heart 

*  There  is  a  well  authenticated  family  tradition  that  Marie  Antoinette, 
Queen  of  France,  then  twenty-three  years  old,  sent  through  Dr.  Franklin 
to  “Monsieur  Floyd,  the  escaped  prisoner,”  a  purse  of  gold  coins  the  value 
of  which  was  sixty  pounds  sterling  of  English  money.  It  is  believed  that  the 
picture  given  of  him  in  one  of  the  groups  elsewhere  inserted,  was  sketched 
in  Paris  at  that  time.  He  never  had  an  opportunity  after  his  return  to 
America  to  have  such  a  picture  made. 

fFor  information  concerning  the  influence  of  Col.  John  Floyd1  in  the  early 
settlement  of  Kentucky,  see  “Winning  of  the  West,”  by  former  President 
Roosevelt,  particularly  the  second  volume. 


EARLY  DAYS  IN  KENTUCKY 


19 


to  win  a  place  for  himself.  When  Charles  the  Second  died  in  1685 
the  succession  of  James  the  Second  gave  almost  universal  dissatis¬ 
faction.  The  Duke  of  Monmouth,  though  a  natural  son  of  Charles 
the  Second,  was  in  many  points  of  view  his  superior,  and  would 
have  been  his  successor  had  he  been  legitimate,  as  his  friends 
claimed  him  to  be.  He  was  very  popular,  particularly  with  the 
young  gentry,  and  these  became  leaders  in  the  “Monmouth  Rebel¬ 
lion”  with  the  hope  of  transferring  the  succession  to  the  young 
Duke.  But  in  the  contest  which  followed  James  wielded  the 
power  and  resources  of  the  government  and  the  attempt  of  Mon¬ 
mouth  and  the  young  gentry  to  seize  the  throne  was  mismanaged 
and  failed.  A  delirious  period  of  madly  resentful  persecutions 
ensued,  which  made  the  name  of  Jeffries,  then  the  Chief  Justice 
of  England,  forever  infamous,  and  drove  into  hopeless  exile  some 
of  the  best  blood  of  Scotland.* 

After  the  Declaration  of  Independence  young  Charles  Floyd 
offered  his  services  to  Virginia,  and  was  enrolled  as  a  part  of  her 
Colonial  troops,  used  to  beat  back  the  savage  forays  along 
her  western  frontiers,  and  to  hold  the  Indians  and  their  Canadian 
allies  in  the  vast  northwest  region,  in  dread  of  her  power.  In 
the  latter  part  of  1777  when  George  Rogers  Clark  hastened  from 
Kentucky  to  Virginia  to  appeal  for  500  men  with  which  he  declared 
his  ability  to  drive  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton  of  Canada, 
“The  scalp  buyer,”  and  the  garrisons  he  had  established  in  the 
northwest,  back  into  Canada,  Governor  Patrick  Henry  quickly 
saw  and  entered  into  the  brilliant  scheme  which  Clark  had  in  view. 
But  troops  were  badly  needed  in  the  Continental  army,  material 
from  which  to  draw  recruits  was  very  scarce  and  the  absolute 
necessity  for  perfect  secrecy,  as  regarded  Clark’s  plans,  forbade 
any  flaming  appeal  for  volunteers.  For  these  reasons  Clark  got 
permission  to  raise  only  five  companies  of  50  men  each  and  at  his 
request  Charles  Floyd,  his  personal  friend,  was  appointed  to  aid 
him  in  recruiting  them. 

But  the  conditions  were  such  that  they  succeeded  in  raising 
only  about  150  men.  A  writer  of  the  period  says  secrecy  of  the 

*  The  Virginia  and  Georgia  descendants  of  Colonel  John  Stewart  have 
an  old  tradition  that  their  ancestor,  the  first  Duke  of  Berwick  (1450)  was  a 
younger  son  of  the  Scottish  King,  James  the  Second,  and  that  Henry  Stew¬ 
art,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  and  his  cousin,  Mary  Stewart,  Queen  of 
Scots,  who  graciously  yielded  him  her  hand  in  marriage,  were  both  in  the 
Berwick  line  of  descent.  Chamber’s  Encyclopaedia — English,  Unabridged, 
says: — “Many  names  famous  in  Scottish  history  are  closely  associated 
with  Berwickshire — amongst  them  are  the  ancestors  of  the  royal  Stewarts.” 


20 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


object  of  the  expedition  was  so  perfectly  maintained  that  few,  if 
any,  members  of  the  General  Assembly  who  voted  the  supplies, 
knew  what  they  were  intended  for;  and  good  patriotic  citizens  being 
in  ignorance,  advised  young  men  not  to  enlist  lest  they  be  taken 
away  on  some  filibustering  adventure.  Only  general  confidence  in 
Governor  Patrick  Henry  and  the  two  young  men  enabled  them 
to  get  off  to  Kentucky  with  a  force  which  was  less  than  one-third 
of  the  small  force  that  had  been  first  asked  for.  Arriving  at  the 
Falls,  the  present  site  of  Louisville,  a  stockade  fort  was  built, 
and  quite  a  number  of  Kentuckians  joined  the  expedition. 

From  this  point  of  time  Charles  Floyd  seems  to  have  escaped 
the  notice  of  both  tradition  and  history  for  more  than  a  year. 
No  mention  of  his  name  has  been  found  for  that  period,  but  a 
tradition,  preserved  by  some  branches  of  the  Floyd  family,  states 
that  Colonel  Floyd,  presumably  Charles’  older  brother,  was  with 
Clark  at  that  time;  and  that  Clark  and  himself  had  been  approached 
by  British  emissaries  sent  by  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton, 
to  offer  in  the  name  of  Lord  George  Germain,  British  Minister  in 
London,  a  princely  bribe  of  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  River 
together  with  British  titles  and  honors,  if  they  would  desert  the 
cause  of  Virginia.  This  tradition  is  carried  in  the  biographies  of 
George  Rogers  Clark’s  family  also,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  follow¬ 
ing  extract  taken  from  memoirs  written  in  1840,  as  follows: 

“He” — Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton — “made  a  proposition 
to  Clark  and  Floyd  if  they  would  give  up  the  country  to  the  British 
they  should  have  as  much  boundary  of  land  on  the  West  bank  of 
the  Ohio  and  any  title  under  that  of  Duke  .  .  .  This  fact 

was  communicated  to  Mr.  Charles  Fenton  Mercer  upwards  of  30 
years  ago  (i.e.,  previous  to  1810)  by  Mrs.  Croghan,  the  sister  of 
General  Clark  and  mother  of  Colonel  George  C.  Croghan,  of  San¬ 
dusky  memory  ....  Mrs.  Breckenridge  also  had  many 
times  corroborated  the  fact.” 

There  can  be  no  reason  to  doubt  the  entire  correctness  of  the 
main  facts  of  the  tradition,  but  the  inference  that  Colonel  John 
Floyd  is  the  Floyd  alluded  to  is  certainly  incorrect.  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Hamilton,  the  head  of  the  allied  Canadian  and  Indian 
forces,  which  had  overrun  the  northwestern  territory,  had  but  two 
opportunities  to  make  such  a  proposition.  First,  when  communi¬ 
cation  was  held  between  Clark  (after  having  captured  Kaskaskia 
with  its  garrison  of  500)  and  the  British  garrison  at  Vincennes. 
This  was  conducted  through,  or  by  means  of,  Professor  De  Fout 
of  the  Kaskaskia  Seminary  (French),  and  Rev.  Father  Gibault, 


EARLY  DAYS  IN  KENTUCKY  *  2  1 

a  priest  of  the  order  of  Loyola.  That  was  in  September,  1778, 
a  month  or  more  before  the  return  of  Colonel  John  Floyd  from  his 
imprisonment  in  England. 

The  other  was  in  the  severest  weather  of  the  succeeding  winter 
when  Colonel  Francis  Vigo  arrived  in  Kaskaskia  from  Vincennes, 
where  he  had  been  on  a  business  trip  to  Hamilton  and  the  garri¬ 
son.  Vigo  was  a  wealthy  Spanish  merchant  doing  a  large  business 
in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley,  and  it  may  be  assumed  that  his 
visit  to  Clark  caused  the  hasty  and  terrible  mid-winter  campaign 
of  the  latter,  and  the  utter  ruin  of  Hamilton  and  his  wicked  schemes. 
This  occurred  in  January,  only  two  months  after  Colonel  John 
Floyd  had  married  the  beautiful  and  wealthy  Miss  Sallie  Buchanan 
and  had  taken  her  to  spend  the  inclement  winter  weather  in  the 
home  of  his  parents  in  Virginia.  He  was  quietly  resting  there,  and 
recuperating  from  his  imprisonment  and  trying  experiences  in 
Europe,  when  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton  and  his  garrison 
were  captured  at  Vincennes,  and  Hamilton,  by  Clark’s  order, 
sent  in  chains  to  Williamsburg,  then  the  capital  of  Virginia,  to 
languish  in  harsh  imprisonment  for  his  crimes  against  the  ordinary 
behests  of  civilization. 

All  this  being  true  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  the  question 
naturally  arises:  What  Floyd  was  it  who  cooperated  with  Clark 
on  those  interesting  occasions? 

Charles  Floyd  is  unaccounted  for  during  that  period,  and  it 
is  a  reasonable  hypothesis  that,  being  in  the  State  service,  Gov¬ 
ernor  Patrick  Henry  could  not  detail  him  for  special  service  with  the 
secret  expedition  without  exciting  comment,  which  might  make 
the  fact  generally  known  to  spies  and  “friendly  Indians”  that 
the  State  was  sending  westward  a  mysterious  military  force.  And 
deeming  it  unwise  to  entrust  the  scheme  to  any  of  the  recruits, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  imprudent  to  allow  the  men  to  leave  the 
State  with  the  fate  of  the  expedition  depending  upon  the  life  of  one 
individual,  Charles  Floyd  was  given  an  indefinite  leave  of  absence, 
and  privately  ordered  to  accompany  and  aid  Clark  in,  what  each 
of  the  three  individuals  most  nearly  concerned  must  have  con¬ 
sidered,  an  unusually  daring  and  desperate  adventure.  We  are 
under  the  necessity  of  accepting  this  hypothesis  as  a  fact. 

While  Colonel  John  Floyd  and  his  bride  were  quietly  spending 
the  inclement  winter  weather  in  the  home  of  his  parents,  he  devised 
a  plan  for  the  exodus  of  the  entire  family,  father,  mother,  sisters, 
brothers,  husbands,  wives  and  babies  to  the  very  fertile  region 
in  Kentucky  near  the  Ohio  Falls,  where  he  had  already  patented 


22 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


several  thousand  acres  of  land.  Charles  had  just  been  to  the 
region  with  his  friend,  George  Rogers  Clark,  who  had  established 
a  forest  home  near  the  Falls,  and  joined  heartily  in  the  scheme. 
The  enthusiastic  advocacy  of  the  plan  by  the  two  older  brothers 
finally  won  the  family  over  to  the  idea,  with  three  exceptions. 
The  mother  and  father  would  consider  the  matter  for  themselves 
and  their  two  unmarried  daughters;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Powell’s  pecu¬ 
niary  interests  and  five  small  children  compelled  them  to  remain 
in  Amherst  County,  and  Mrs.  Tuley  and  her  babies  would  remain 
till  Mr.  Tuley  had  established  a  home  in  the  unknown  region,  to 
which  he  could  take  them. 

THE  NEW  KENTUCKY  HOME 

On  arriving  at  the  Falls,  which  point  had  become  a  small  trading 
post  for  the  people  passing  up  and  down  the  Ohio  River,  the  first 
thing  done  was  to  erect  a  cabin  for  the  shelter  of  the  women  and 
children,  while  the  men,  with  their  colored  laborers,  were  building 
a  stockade  fort  and  comfortable  log-cabin  homes  for  the  families 
out  on  Beargrass  Creek,  some  five  miles  distant.  The  place 
selected  for  the  cabin  at  the  Falls  is  now  a  corner  at  the  crossing  of 
Main  and  Third  Streets,  Louisville.  The  stockade  fort  which 
George  Rogers  Clark  and  Charles  Floyd  had  built  at  the  Falls, 
the  previous  year,  was  in  good  condition  and  was  for  a  time  util¬ 
ized  by  the  families.  Out  on  the  creek  other  settlers  lent  willing 
hands,  and  “log-rolling”  went  merrily  and  rapidly  on.  Soon 
comfortable  double  cabins,  with  substantial  puncheon  floors  and 
centre  halls,  were  ready  for  occupancy  and  the  families  moved  in. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  the  newly  elected  Governor  of  Virginia,  ap¬ 
pointed  Colonel  John  Floyd  Lieutenant  for  Jefferson  County,  and 
the  settlers  were  soon  gotten  together  to  form  a  County  govern¬ 
ment.  Samuel  McDowel,  Esq.,  was  made  the  dispenser  of  justice, 
other  officials  were  appointed,  and  for  a  time  the  settlement,  which 
became  known  as  Floyd  Station,  was  of  more  consequence  than 
the  little  group  of  cabins  at  the  Falls.  Charles  Floyd  made  his 
double  log-cabin,  with  double  shed-rooms,  an  open  home  for  all 
missionaries  and  itinerant  preachers,  and  the  only  “Church” 
known  for  a  number  of  years  was  his  “Big-room”  which  served 
also  as  the  family  parlor  and  dining  room. 

The  success  of  the  Virginians  and  the  Kentucky  pioneers,  under 
George  Rogers  Clark,  at  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes,  while  finally 
decisive  as  regarded  the  white  ownership  of  the  territory,  made  only 


EARLY  DAYS  IN  KENTUCKY 


23 


a  temporary  impression  upon  the  minds  of  the  Indians;  and,  after 
a  season  of  comparative  quiet,  they  gradually  became  aggressively 
hostile  again.  Colonel  Floyd  and  his  brothers  and  neighbors  had 
frequent  bloody  contests  with  marauding  parties  in  some  of  which 
the  Indians  fought  stubbornly  before  retreating  or  scattering  in  the 
forest;  and,  of  course,  inflicting  serious  loss  upon  the  settlers.  On 
one  occasion  a  party  of  about  thirty  Indians  attacked  a  settlement 
on  the  head  of  Beargrass  Creek,  some  twelve  miles  from  Floyd 
Station,  tomahawking  most  of  the  people  and  burning  their  houses. 
When  the  news  reached  Floyd  Station  a  party  of  about  twenty  men 
was  hastily  gotten  together  and  hurried  to  the  point  of  attack. 
But  it  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  they  arrived  at  the  smolder¬ 
ing  ruins  which  half  concealed  the  ghastly  sights  of  human  butchery, 
and  the  Indians  had  departed.  Taking  the  trail  the  settlers  fol¬ 
lowed  it  until  darkness  rendered  it  invisible.  Then,  most  of  the 
men  being  experienced  woodsmen,  the  same  general  direction  was 
followed  for  miles  until  the  party  came  in  sight  of  the  feeble  glow 
of  a  camp  fire.  After  a  brief  whispered  parley,  the  party  advanced 
stealthily  and  approached  quite  near  before  they  were  discovered. 
Then,  with  a  sudden  rush,  they  attacked  the  savages  with  knives 
and  tomahawks  so  effectively  that  only  three  escaped,  while  but 
two  of  their  own  men  were  killed.  The  State  of  Kentucky  erected 
a  monument  to  commemorate  the  valor  of  that  little  band  led  by 
Colonel  John  Floyd  and  his  brothers. 

About  this  time  George  Rogers  Clark — who,  after  his  remark¬ 
able  Vincennes  campaign  had  gone  to  Virginia  hoping  to  meet  in 
battle  the  traitor  Arnold,  who  with  his  British  force  was  “Sher- 
manizing”*  Virginia,  returned  to  his  forest  home  “  Clarkville,” 
within  sight  of  the  stockade  he  and  Charles  Floyd  had  built  at  the 
Falls,  and  in  conjunction  with  the  Floyds  and  the  settlers  generally, 
inaugurated  measures  looking  to  the  ultimate  driving  of  all 
marauding  Indians  out  of  the  Ohio  Valley  and  especially  beyond  all 
settlements  along  the  river.  The  task  was  finally  accomplished, 
but  many  who  helped  to  inaugurate  it — including  two  of  the  Floyd 
brothers  and  three  of  their  brothers-in-law — died  at  the  hands  of 
the  savages  before  its  accomplishment. 

After  the  surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis’  army  in  Virginia  the 
war  was  practically  over,  and  settlers  and  prospectors  came  in 

*  It  is  hoped  the  reader  will  not  regard  the  use  of  this  word  as  constituting  an 
anachronism.  It  was  coined  by  a  Georgia  poetess  whose  parents  probably  suffered 
at  Atlanta — winter  of  1864 — and  is  so  illuminatingly  suggestive  of  unwarrantable 
methods  of  warfare  that  the  writer,  on  sober  second  thought,  decided  not  to  erase  it. 


24 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


numbers  to  take  up  the  rich  lands  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  The  sur¬ 
veyors’  office  of  the  Floyd  brothers  was  kept  busy,  and  they  were 
out  continually  locating  and  getting  metes  and  bounds  of  large 
bodies  of  land.  But  the  triumph  in  Virginia  did  not  affect  the 
savages  in  Kentucky,  and  surveyors’  work  had  to  be  done  by  armed 
parties.  Many  were  the  adventures  of  the  brothers,  and  other 
parties,  as  they  pursued  their  work  in  the  primeval  forests.  Some 
idea  of  the  appearance  and  condition  of  the  country  may  be  derived 
from  a  letter  written  by  General  Muhlenberg,  a  German-American 
patriot  who  was  conspicuous  at  Yorktown.  The  government 
made  him  a  grant  of  30,000  acres  of  land  in  the  Ohio  Valley  in 
recognition  of  his  gallant  services,  and  in  March,  1783,  he  went  to 
the  Falls  to  procure  the  assistance  of  the  Floyds  in  its  location. 
In  his  letter  he  says: 

Louisville  may  be  described  as  a  court  house,  a  jail,  and  seven  huts,  besides  the 
rude  fort.  I  make  no  doubt  that  in  time  this  will  be  the  first  and  most  valuable 
section  in  North  America.  At  present  the  country  is  inhabited  by  wild  beasts 
only. 

About  a  month  after  this  was  written  Colonel  Floyd,  his  brother 
Charles  and  Mr.  Alexander  Breckenridge,  a  writer  in  the  surveyors’ 
office,  went  some  fifteen  miles  to  a  settlement  on  Salt  River  to 
attend  a  general  muster.  Colonel  Floyd  wore  a  handsome  uni¬ 
form,  which  made  him  a  conspicuous  figure,  and  on  their  return, 
when  less  than  half  the  distance  had  been  covered,  they  were  fired 
on  by  a  party  of  Indians  in  ambush.  Captain  Charles  seeing  the 
Colonel  fall  forward  on  the  pommel  of  his  saddle,  and  make  an 
effort  to  right  himself,  leaped  from  his  own  horse  and  sprang  up 
behind  his  brother,  throwing  his  arms  around  him  in  support,  and 
putting  spurs  to  the  horse  dashed  several  miles  to  the  nearest 
hunter’s  cabin.  He  was  found  to  be  mortally  wounded  but  lived 
through  the  night,  dying  early  the  next  morning  in  the  thirty- 
second  year  of  his  age. 

Besides  the  daughter  by  his  first  wife,  Colonel  Floyd  left  three 
sons,  William  Preston,  George  Rogers  Clark  and  John;  the  latter 
born  two  weeks  after  his  father’s  death.  These  will  be  specially 
mentioned  later. 

After  the  untimely  death  of  his  distinguished  elder  brother,  a 
large  part  of  the  public  cares  and  duties,  which  had  been  his,  de¬ 
volved  upon  Captain  Charles  Floyd,  who,  while,  perhaps,  some¬ 
what  less  active  and  enterprising,  was  a  man  of  equal  determina¬ 
tion  and  devotion  to  duty.  Though  previously  somewhat  eclipsed 
by  his  brother’s  fame  and  unceasing  activity,  his  own  quiet  force 


EARLY  DAYS  IN  KENTUCKY 


25 


of  character  soon  brought  him  to  the  front  as  an  acceptable  leader. 
His  high  sense  of  justice  as  a  Magistrate,  and  his  discriminating 
judgment  in  arbitrating  differences  between  neighbors  or  neigh¬ 
borhoods,  coupled  with  his  success  in  cultivating  more  amicable 
relations  with  the  Indians,  and  his  readiness  to  “lead  to  the 
limit”  when  they  had  to  be  fought,  soon  spread  his  fame  locally 
as  far  as  his  brothers  had  extended. 

He  and  his  wife  had  inherited  quite  a  number  of  colored  servants 
and  as  the  needs  of  these  and  a  growing  family  were  steadily  in¬ 
creasing,  he  settled  and  cleared  a  large  farm  on  Mill  Creek  in  a 
neighborhood  known  as  the  Ponds  Settlement,  some  twelve  miles 
from  Louisville.  After  a  time  he  gradually  withdrew  from  all 
public  employment  and  devoted  his  time  exclusively  to  agriculture, 
still  making  his  house  an  ever  open  home  for  all  weary  travellers, 
missionaries  and  itinerant  preachers  of  all  denominations. 

In  1828,  after  all  the  daughters  had  married  and  left  the  home 
nest,  and  the  sons  were  scattered,  the  aged  couple  went  to  visit 
a  daughter  living  in  Todd  County  near  the  Tennessee  line  where 
also  several  children  and  grandchildren  of  his  uncle  Robert,  “the 
black  Davis”  were  residing.  There  the  old  gentleman  had  an 
accidental  fall  from  which  he  received  internal  injuries  which  re¬ 
sulted  in  his  death  a  few  weeks  later,  and  he  was  buried  there — 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  his  home. 

After  the  estate  had  been  settled  up  and  the  negro  servants  dis¬ 
tributed  among  the  children  living  in  the  State,  the  gentle  Mary 
Stewart  made  her  home  among  her  daughters  generally.  She 
lived  to  be  over  ninety  years  of  age  and  died  in  the  home  of  a 
daughter  living  in  Bond  County,  Illinois,  about  forty  miles  east 
of  St.  Louis.  Her  tombstone  bears  the  simple  inscription: 

Mary,  wife  of  Charles  Floyd 
Died  Jan.  12th,  1850. 

For  the  greater  part  of  a  century  there  has  been  a  belief  among 
the  Floyds  of  Virginia,  that  there  was  no  likeness  extant  of  Charles 
Floyd.1  Indeed  the  belief  was  general  in  the  family  until  some 
years  ago,  when  a  youth,  rummaging  among  old  papers  that  had 
belonged  to  his  great-grandfather,  the  first  Governor  Floyd  of 
Virginia,  found  in  the  garret  of  an  abandoned  mansion  which  in 
former  years  had  been  the  home  of  a  branch  of  the  family,  a  pen- 
and-ink  drawing  of  his  features — and  his  uniform — made  when  the 
Colonies  were  being  goaded  into  rebellion  by  the  unfriendly  policies 
of  an  unwise  monarch. 


26 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


On  the  opposite  page  is  presented  a  reproduction  of  the  draw¬ 
ing.  We  have  no  information  about  it  excepting  what  is  given 
and  what  may  be  gathered  and  inferred,  from  traditions  of  the 
period,  and  from  the  legend  written  underneath.  The  latter 
shows,  by  the  use  of  the  past  tense  in  speaking  of  the  “Crisis,” 
that  it  was  written  some  time  after  the  picture  was  made.  And 
the  fact  that  a  minute  description  is  given  of  the  handsome  uni¬ 
form,  while  there  is  no  reference  whatever  to  the  manly  form  and 
handsome  features  of  the  individual,  compels  the  inference  that 
the  legend  was  written  by  the  young  man  himself.  And  the  addi¬ 
tional  inference,  accounting  for  its  possession  by  the  descendants 
of  his  elder  brother,  naturally  follows  that  it  was  presented  to 
the  beautiful  and  accomplished  Sallie  Buchanan,  the  wealthy 
young  bride  of  his  elder  brother,  when  they  were  fitting  up  her 
log-cabin  bridal  home  in  the  wild  woods  of  Kentucky. 

Immediately  after  Patrick  Henry  made  his  famous  “Liberty 
or  Death”  speech,  March  20,  1775,  in  old  St.  John’s  Church,  still 
standing,  and  in  use  in  Richmond,  Va.,  military  companies  com¬ 
menced  to  organize  in  all  parts  of  the  Colony  and  to  call  on  him 
to  lead  them.  Six  hundred  men  of  Spottsylvania  assembled  at 
Fredericksburg,  in  green  hunting-shirts  with  “Liberty  or  Death” 
in  white  letters  across  the  breast.  Fauquier,  Prince  William, 
Stafford,  Culpeper,  Orange,  Fairfax  and  other  counties  in  that 
section,  raised  companies  also,  the  prevailing  uniform  being 
brown  jeans  hunting-shirts  with  the  motto  across  the  breast,  or 
in  red  letters  upon  the  banners. 

The  “St.  Helena  Volunteers,”  of  Amherst  County  was,  perhaps, 
the  first  company  to  restrain  its  eagerness  to  grapple  with  the 
minions  of  John  Bull  long  enough  to  get  up  a  handsome  uniform 
and  to  set  the  fashion  in  headgear  by  engraving  the  “Crisis” 
upon  a  silver  crescent  as  an  ornament  for  the  cap.  Whether  or 
not  this  company  started  that  fashion,  it  is  quite  certain  that  it 
was  extensively  followed,  not  only  in  Virginia,  but  in  the  Carolinas 
and  Georgia  also,  and,  doubtless,  in  other  Colonies. 

Children  of  Charles1  and  Mary  (Stewart)  Floyd 

The  family  Bible  of  the  above  couple  has  never  been  seen  by  any 
member  of  the  family  of  the  one  son  (Dr.  Nathaniel  Wilson 
Floyd2  who  returned  to  make  his  home  in  Virginia.  It  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  have  been  lost  in  Bond  County,  Illinois,  after  going  into 
the  hands  of  one  of  the  children  of  the  daughter  at  whose  home 


U>u{m  _  ©»*•_  a£u.  Gins..  &*./&<*  »*4  -  S&.J.A  e^Cxr-hSitirM^i^ 

-.Q-Im,  •SjSSJSie.9&*t{j.M*k  k,.u _  ©<../•* '«~xj%uk--  r?  « 

■■yt(S>*,sU/M  X  Junt&jj^n  ifttk 

W*J  ^  £  Qanh. . ~  vttd  r,>,^zr)  .^  £uW^ki .  3U*  ubn 


Note: — It  has  been  suggested  that  the  name,  “St.  Helena  Volunteers”  which 
appears  in  the  legend  underneath  the  above  pen-and-ink  sketch  of  Charles  Floyd,  was 
probably  meant  to  be  “St.  Helens  Volunteers”  in  honor  of  a  noted  manufacturing 
town  of  that  name  and  period  in  Lancashire,  fifteen  miles  northeast  of  Liverpool. 
But  it  is  much  more  probable  that  the  name  is  correctly  written,  and  was  given  in 
honor  of  the  Roman  Empress  Helena  who  influenced  her  son,  Constantine  the 
Great,  to  accept  the  Christian  religion;  and  who  was  canonized  by  the  Church  of 
Rome  in  the  fourth  or  fifth  century. 


CHILDREN  OF  CHARLES1  AND  MARY  STEWART  FLOYD  27 

Mary  Stewart  Floyd  died.  Tradition  says  there  were  twelve 
children  but  it  is  doubtful  if  so  many  grew  to  maturity.  At  any 
rate  we  can  name  only  the  following: 

1.  Davis  Floyd2,  born  in  Virginia,  before  the  Revolutionary 
War.  Married  Susanna  Lewis,  a  niece  of  General  Andrew  Lewis 
of  Point  Pleasant  fame.  See  special  mention. 

2.  Gabriel  Floyd2,  also  born  in  Virginia  before  the  Revo¬ 
lution.  Moved  to  Indiana  in  1801  with  his  brother  Davis  and 
wife.  It  is  only  known  that  he  married  and  went  to  the  far  west. 

3.  Charles  Floyd2,  born  in  Kentucky,  1782.  Died  on  Lewis 
and  Clark  expedition,  1804.  See  special  mention. 

4.  Nancy  Floyd2,  born  1784.  Married  George  Rogers  a 
cousin  of  General  George  Rogers  Clark  and  of  the  Explorer,  Cap¬ 
tain  William  Clark. 

5.  Elizabeth  Floyd2.  Married  Churchill  Myrtle  in  1813. 
Reared  a  family,  some  of  whom  lived  in  Mississippi  and  Arkansas, 
as  late  as  i860. 

6.  Mary  Floyd2.  Married  William  Perkins  in  1822.  It  is 
not  known  if  they  left  a  family. 

7.  Cynthia  Floyd2.  Married  and  left  a  family,  but  the 
gentleman  whom  she  married  is  known  to  Virginia  family  tradition 
only  as  “Uncle  James.”  It  is  probable  that  Mary  Stewart  Floyd 
died  at  this  daughter’s  home. 

8.  Nathaniel  Wilson  Floyd2.  Born  June  5,  1793.  Mar¬ 
ried  Elizabeth  West  Anderson,  March  25,  1819.  See  special  men¬ 
tion. 

9.  Fountain  Floyd2.  Born  in  1795.  In  early  life  he  made 
a  flatboat  trading  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  never  returned  to  Ken¬ 
tucky.  He  married  a  planter’s  daughter,  whose  name  is  not  known 
to  the  Virginia  family,  and  established  a  large  sugar  plantation 
on  the  Sabine  River  in  southwest  Louisiana  near  Beaumont. 
He  had  a  daughter  and  two  sons.  When  the  war  between  the 
States  commenced  the  latter  went  into  the  Confederate  service. 
The  elder,  Charles,  was  killed  at  or  near  Arkansas  Post,  and  the 
younger,  Alonzo,  fell  at  or  near  Sabine  Pass.  It  is  believed  the 
daughter  died  during,  or  just  after,  the  war. 

SPECIAL  MENTION 

Davis2  Eldest  Son  of  Charles1  and  Mary  Stewart  Floyd 

Judge  Davis  Floyd  was  a  man  of  considerable  ability.  As  a 
boy  he  was  studious  and  read  law  for  a  time.  He  married  Miss 


28 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


Susanna  Lewis  of  Louisville,  a  member  of  the  noted  Lewis  family 
of  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  and  in  1801  removed  to  Clarksville, 
Indiana.  He  immediately  became  a  leading  figure  in  the  affairs 
of  that  settlement  and  tilled  many  minor  positions  from  surveyor 
and  recorder  of  deeds  to  captain  of  the  militia  and  county  judge. 
He  organized  several  new  industries  and  became  a  leader  in  the 
politics  of  the  territory.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  Constitu¬ 
tional  Convention,  and  though  a  slave  owner  he  opposed  the  propo¬ 
sition  to  permit  the  temporary  employment  of  slave  labor,  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  be  indirectly  a  violation  of  faith  with  Virginia; 
which  State,  when  she  surrendered  the  vast  Northwest  region, 
which  her  men  and  her  money  had  conquered,  to  the  general  gov¬ 
ernment,  had  expressly  stipulated  that  it  should  be  forever  free 
from  slavery. 

He  aided  in  the  organization  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Masons  of 
Indiana,  at  Corydon,  and  for  many  years  was  the  Grand  Secretary 
of  that  body.  In  1806  he  became  connected  in  some  way  with 
the  enterprises  of  Aaron  Burr  and  Harman  Blennerhasset,  the  ob¬ 
ject  and  extent  of  which  have  never  been  fully  known;  and  though 
Burr  was  arrested  and  tried  for  treason  at  Richmond,  Virginia, 
the  reputation  and  standing  of  Judge  Floyd  were  in  no  wise  affected, 
either  socially  or  politically.  When  in  1819  a  new  county  was  made 
out  of  territory  cut  off  from  Clark  and  Harrison  counties  it  was 
named  Floyd  County,  in  his  honor.  Later  when  Andrew  Jackson 
was  elected  President,  in  1828,  he  appointed  Judge  Floyd  Land 
Commissioner  for  the  Territory  of  Florida.  He  died  while  occupy¬ 
ing  that  position  about  the  time  that  President  Jackson  issued  his 
proclamation  against  South  Carolina,  the  general  tenor  of  which 
greatly  offended  his  cousin  John,  then  governor  of  Virginia,  and 
other  prominent  Floyds,  all  of  whom  were  stanch  States  rights 
Democrats. 

Judge  Floyd  had  a  son  by  the  name  of  Lewis,  but  whether  he 
lived  to  maturity  and  resided  in  Florida  or  Indiana,  could  not 
be  ascertained. 

SPECIAL  MENTION 

Charles  Floyd2  Third  Son  of  Charles  and  Mary1 

This  young  man  seems  to  have  been  quite  a  favorite  in  the  large 
family  of  which  he  was  a  member.  He  was  less  sedate  than  his 
eldest  brother  and  was  more  responsive  to  the  call  of  the  forests 
and  streams  contiguous  to  the  settlement,  than  to  the  silent  sug¬ 
gestion  of  the  crude  log  schoolhouse  belonging  to  the  neighbor- 


CHILDREN  OF  CHARLES1  AND  MARY  STEWART  FLOYD  29 


hood.  He  eagerly  mastered  the  secrets  of  the  former,  but  the  dog¬ 
eared  elementary  books  of  the  latter  contained  mysteries  that  were 
too  irksome  for  a  youth  with  red  blood  in  his  veins;  and  though  he 
picked  up  a  moderately  fair ‘‘backwoods  education,”  it  can  be  safely 
surmised,  on  the  authority  of  a  journal  kept  by  him,  which  came 
to  light  ninety  years  after  his  death — and  which  the  Floyd  Memo¬ 
rial  Association,  of  Sioux  City,  Iowa,  has  had  lithographed  in  full — 
that  the  log  schoolhouse  probably  never  awarded  him  a  premium 
for  spelling  or  writing.  But  the  same  has  been  said  “of  many 
far  wiser  than  he”;  for  instance,  of  his  father’s  friend,  General 
George  Rogers  Clark.  And  even  the  immortal  “Father  of  his 
Country,”  when  he  was  a  young  surveyor,  displayed  a  unique 
originality  in  his  method  of  spelling  and  scribbling. 

When  Captains  Meriwether  Lewis  and  William  Clark,  commis¬ 
sioned  by  President  Jefferson,  1803,  were  carefully  selecting  men 
to  form  the  small  party  which  was  to  explore  the  vast  “Louisiana 
Purchase,”  almost  as  large  as  the  entire  territory  of  the  United 
States  as  it  then  was,  it  was  but  natural  that  Charles  Floyd,  Jr., 
should  have  been  chosen  as  the  first  in  command  under  themselves. 
The  father  of  one  and  the  elder  brother  of  the  other  had  acted  in 
concert  with  his  father  and  uncles  in  many  trying  situations,  and 
personal  association  among  the  young  men  themselves  also  dic¬ 
tated  the  appointment. 

But  the  young  man’s  career  was  brought  to  an  early  end  by  his 
sudden  illness  and  death,  after  the  heroic  little  band  had  pushed 
its  tedious  way,  in  a  barge  of  twenty-two  oars  and  two  pirogues  of 
six  oars  each,  against  the  current  of  the  Missouri  River  for  more 
than  three  months,  into  the  silent  vastness  of  the  unknown  wil¬ 
derness.  He  wrote  the  last  item  in  his  journal  on  August  18,  1804, 
and  on  the  next  day  was  taken  violently  ill  “all  at  once  with  a 
Billiose  Cholick”  as  his  friend  Captain  Clark  wrote  in  his  diary, 
and  the  next  day,  the  20th,  he  wrote  again: 

Sergt.  Floyd  as  bad  as  can  be,  no  pulse  and  nothing  will  stay  on  his  stomach. 
*  *  *  *  Observed  two  Islands  on  S.  S.  (starboard  side)  and  at  the  first  Bluff 

on  the  S.  S.  Sergt.  Floyd  died  with  a  great  deal  of  composure.  Before  his  death  he 
said  to  me  “I  am  going  away — I  want  you  to  write  me  a  letter.”  We  buried  him 
on  top  of  the  bluff  \  mile  below  a  small  river  to  which  we  gave  his  name.  He  was 
buried  with  the  Honors  of  War,  much  lamented, — a  cedar  post  with  the  name  Sergt. 
C.  Floyd  died  here  20th  of  August,  1804,  was  fixed  at  the  head  of  his  grave.  He  at 
all  times  gave  us  proof  of  his  firmness  and  determined  resolution  to  doe  Service  to 
his  countrey  and  honor  to  himself. 

Within  a  few  years  white  men  began  to  wander  through  that 
wild  region  and  Floyd’s  Bluff  and  cedar  post  became  noted  and 


3° 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


ever  interesting  land  marks.  Many  noted  wanderers  through  the 
wilds  visited  the  spot  and  some  wrote  beautifully  about  the  lonely 
grave.  In  1811  Thomas  Nutall,  the  famous  botanist,  visited  it  and 
wrote  about  it.  In  1832  the  distinguished  painter  George  Catlin, 
on  a  canoe  voyage,  painted  a  picture  of  the  Bluff  and  its  surround¬ 
ings  and  wrote  a  beautiful  apostrophe  to  the  unknown  Floyd. 
In  1839  the  eminent  scientist  Jean  Nicolett  visited  it  at  the  head  of 
a  party  which  went  up  in  the  first  steamboat  that  penetrated  into 
that  wild  region,  and  wrote  interestingly  of  a  severe  storm  at  night 
which  came  on  while  their  boat  was  tied  up  near  Floyd’s  Bluff. 
A  few  years  later  a  settlement,  made  near  the  bluff,  commenced 
to  grow  into  a  village  and  is  now  the  beautiful  and  populous  Sioux 
City  of  Iowa. 

For  years  the  river  had  been  tearing  away  the  foundation  of  the 
bluff,  causing  the  face  of  it  to  slide  down  and  be  carried  off  by  the 
tide,  until,  in  1857,  the  people  of  the  town  found  that  the  erosion 
of  a  very  heavy  spring  freshet  had  exposed  the  end  of  the  coffin 
and  carried  off  the  post  which  marked  its  location.  The  citizens 
immediately  got  together  and  reburied  the  remains  in  a  walnut 
coffin,  six  hundred  feet  farther  from  the  river.  In  1895  the  sec¬ 
ond  grave  was  opened,  a  Floyd  Memorial  Association  was  formed, 
and  the  remains  in  urns  were  deposited  in  a  vault  built  for  the 
purpose  on  the  spot,  in  preparation  for  the  erection  of  a  memorial 
shaft.  Enough  land  adjoining  was  procured  to  make  a  handsome 
park  and  in  1900  an  obelisk  of  cut  stone,  one  hundred  feet  above 
the  base,  was  erected  by  the  Floyd  Memorial  Association  of  Sioux 
City,  aided  by  the  United  States  and  the  State  of  Iowa.  The 
west  face  of  the  shaft  bears,  upon  a  massive  bronze  plate,  the 
inscription  copied  on  the  next  page  with  an  effort,  on  the  part  of 
the  printing  office,  to  reproduce  the  style  as  nearly  as  possible  with 
the  types. 

As  soon  as  the  memorial  association  was  formed  it  commenced 
an  effort  to  ascertain  if  anything  could  be  learned  concerning  the 
ancestry  of  the  young  man  whose  memory  they  wished  to  honor, 
and  though  they  doubtless  heard  traditions  hoary  with  age,  they 
were  not  fully  satisfied  till  in  1906,  they  received  from  a  relative  in 
Kentucky  a  letter,  falling  to  pieces  with  age,  written  in  1804  by  a 
boy  brother  of  Sergeant  Floyd.  It  said: 

Dear  Nancy:  Our  dear  Charles  died  on  the  Voyage  of  Colick.  He  was  well 
cared  for  as  Clark  was  there.  My  heart  is  too  full  to  say  more  (some  indistinct 
words  follow)  I  will  see  you  soon. 


Your  brother  Nat. 


CHILDREN  OF  CHARLES1  AND  MARY  STEWART  FLOYD  3 1 

The  writer  was  Dr.  Nathaniel  Wilson  Floyd  who  in  early  man¬ 
hood  made  his  home  near  Lynchburg,  Virginia.  He  was  eleven 
years  old  when  his  brother  Charles  died;  and  “Dear  Nancy”  was 
their  sister  who  had  recently  married  George  Rogers,  a  first  cousin 
of  General  George  Rogers  Clark  and  his  brother  William  Clark  of 
the  Expedition.  The  letter  was  over  a  century  old  when  it  was 
resurrected  by  Mrs.  Susan  Floyd  Gunter,  of  1627  Brook  Street, 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  Her  mother  was  a  favorite  and  “chummy” 
first  cousin  of  “Dear  Nancy”  and  Sergeant  Charles,  and  had 
treasured  the  little  note  as  a  sad  memento. 


INSCRIPTION  WEST  FACE. 


fj  FLOYD 


THIS  SHAFT 

MARKS  THE  BURIAL  PLACE  OF 

SERGEANT  CHARLES  FLOYD 


A  MEMBER  OF  THE 


LEWIS  AND  CLARK  EXPEDITION 

HE  DIED  IN  HIS  COUNTRY'S  SERVICE 
AND  WAS  BURIED  NEAR  THIS  SPOT, 
AUGUST  20.  1S04. 


GRAVES  OF  SUCH  MEN  ARE  PILGRIM  SHRINES— 
SHRINES  TO  NO  CLASS  OR  CREED  CONFINED. 


ERECTED  A.  D.  1900 
BY  THE 

FLOYD  MEMORIAL  ASSOCIATION 

AIDED  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES 
AND  THE  STATE  OF  IOWA. 


32 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


SPECIAL  MENTION 
Nathaniel  Wilson  Floyd2 

Fourth  son  of  Charles  and  Mary,  was  born  at  the  Ponds  Settle¬ 
ment  near  Louisville,  Kentucky,  June  5,  1793. 

He  acquired  the  substantial  rudiments  of  an  education  in  the 
roomy  log  schoolhouse  of  the  Settlement,  the  masters  of  which 
were  required  to  teach  everything  from  the  alphabet  to  a  liberal 
smattering  of  the  classics. 

In  early  manhood  he  went  to  Virginia  to  visit  his  uncle  Charles 
Stewart  and  other  relatives  in  Amherst  and  Bedford  counties, 
and  his  first  cousin  John  Floyd  who  had  married  a  daughter  of  the 
distinguished  Colonel  William  Preston,  his  father’s  friend,  and  had 
left  Kentucky  to  practice  his  profession  of  medicine  in  the  beauti¬ 
ful  mountainous  region  of  Montgomery  County  in  southwestern 
Virginia. 

He  was  so  well  pleased  with  Virginia  and  her  people  that  on 
returning  to  Kentucky  he  made  up  his  mind  to  return  to  Virginia 
and  study  medicine  with  his  cousin,  who,  though  but  little  over 
thirty  years  of  age,  had  already  become  a  distinguished  practitioner. 
For  several  years  he  pored  over  the  medical  lore  of  his  cousin’s 
library,  but,  before  he  had  absorbed  all  of  its  wise  teachings,  destiny 
intervened  and  sent  him  on  a  Christmas-week  visit  to  his  Stewart 
relations  in  Amherst  and  Bedford  counties.  There  he  met  Miss 
Elizabeth  West  Anderson,  a  lovely  young  daughter  of  one  of  the 
most  popular  and  influential  families  of  that  section.  On  his 
return  to  “Thorn  Spring”,  the  delightful  home  of  his  cousin,  he 
found  that  the  library  had  lost  its  attractiveness,  and  the  books 
their  satisfying  companionship.  A  couple  of  months  later  he  re¬ 
turned  to  eastern  Virginia  and  on  the  25th  of  March,  1819,  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Anderson  at  “Locust  Grove”  the 
handsome  colonial  home  of  her  family,  and  took  his  bride  to  the 
“Old  Kentucky  Home”  where  he  finished  his  education  in  the 
medical  school  of  the  Transylvania  University. 

Elizabeth  West  Anderson,  born  May  31,  1802,  was  the  third 
daughter  of  Jesse  Anderson,  Esq.,  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth  West 
Jones.  Mr.  Anderson  was  the  only  son  of  Major  John  Nelson 
Anderson  who  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War  with  the  brigade 
of  “Light  Horse  Harry  Lee.”  His  grandfather,  Colonel  W.  P. 
Anderson,  a  retired  officer  of  the  British  army,  settled  in  Virginia 
about  1760.  Her  mother,  Elizabeth  West  (Jones)  Anderson,  was 


THE  JONES-ANDERSON  FAMILY 


33 


a  daughter  of  Captain  John  Jones,  an  officer  of  the  Revolution,  and 
his  wife  Miss  Frances  Barbour  Jones.  Though  they  bore  the  same 
surname,  tradition  says  there  was  no  blood  relationship  between 
them.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Lane  Jones,  only  son  of  Orlando 
Jones,  the  noted  lawyer  of  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  whose  father, 
Roland  Jones  was  the  distinguished  first  rector  of  Bruton  Parish 
Church,  in  that  ancient  capital  of  the  old  State.  Orlando  Jones 
had  also  an  only  daughter,  Frances,  who  married  Colonel  John 
Dandridge  and  became  the  mother  of  Martha  Dandridge  (Custis) 
Washington,  who,  it  is  seen,  was  a  first  cousin  of  Frances  Barbour 
Jones. 

These  twro  granddaughters  of  Orlando  Jones,  having  but  few 
other  near  relatives,  were  bound  together  by  ties  of  the  closest 
intimacy  and  affection.  The  writer  can  recall  many  incidents 
of  Revolutionary  times,  related  to  him  more  than  seventy  years 
ago,  by  his  aged  grandmother,  who  was  the  daughter  of  Frances 
Barbour  Jones,  and  who  always  spoke  of  Mrs.  Washington  as 
“Aunt  Martha.”  When  asked  why  she  dubbed  her  as  “Aunt” 
when  in  reality  she  was  one  remove  from  a  first  cousin,  her  half- 
apologetic  reply  was: 

“Well,  you  see,  I  was  quite  a  small  girl  and  she  was  older  than 
my  mother, — I  suppose  she  thought  it  a  more  dignified  form  of 
address,  from  a  child,  than  “Cousin”  would  be.  She  was  a  great 
stickler  for  dignity.” 

On  one  occasion  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  she  said:  “Oh  yes;  she 
had  to  scold  me  occasionally,  of  course;  but  she  once  gave  me  a 
shaking  which  surprised  and  mortified  me  greatly.  We  were 
spending  part  of  a  summer  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  one  day  it  was 
planned  to  go  to  Alexandria  early  the  next  morning  to  do  some 
necessary  shopping.  The  next  morning  my  mother  had  one  of 
her  bad  headaches,  but  insisted  that  she  be  left  to  rest  quietly, 
and  the  shopping  be  attended  to.  Aunt  Martha  agreed,  and  said 
I  and  my  maid  should  go  with  her.  When  all  were  ready  the  coach 
was  driven  to  the  back  door,  as  there  was  no  company.  It  was  the 
fashion  then  to  drive  four  horses  and  to  go  very  fast.  The  cushions 
were  of  red  morocco  leather,  smooth  as  glass,  and  the  maid  and  I 
had  the  front  seats  facing  Aunt  Martha.  When  the  driver 
started,  for  some  reason  he  lashed  one  of  the  horses  which  caused 
them  all  to  spring  forward  suddenly,  giving  the  coach  a  jerk 
which  thrust  me  off  the  seat  into  Aunt  Martha’s  lap,  rumpling  and 
disarranging  her  handsome  gown  and  laces.  Seizing  me  by  the 
shoulders  and  giving  me  a  good  shake  she  scolded:  “Child,  can’t 


34 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


you  keep  your  seat  like  a  lady?  Do  you  wish  to  make  people  believe 
you  are  not  in  the  habit  of  riding  in  coaches?”  But  before  we  left 
town  she  gave  me  a  beautiful  doll  and  said:  “You  must  let  her 
apologize  for  your  Aunt  Martha’s  impatience.” 

When  the  newly  married  couple  took  up  the  subject  of  establish¬ 
ing  their  future  home  they  visited  several  sections  of  the  South 
and  made  a  tentative  location  at  Tuscumbia,  Alabama,  near  which 
place  a  cotton  plantation  was  established.  But  the  climatic  con¬ 
ditions  proved  unhealthful  for  Mrs.  Floyd  and  the  next  year  it 
was  decided  to  return  to  Virginia.  In  that  State,  a  few  miles  west 
of  Lynchburg,  Dr.  Floyd  purchased  several  contiguous  farms  which 
had  been  in  cultivation  many  years,  and  threw  them  together  into 
a  large  plantation  upon  which  he  erected  a  handsome  home  and 
gave  the  location  the  name  of  Brookfield.  Here  he  reared  a  large 
family  amid  pleasant  and  refining  influences  and  conditions.  He 
early  found  the  general  practice  of  medicine,  in  a  country  district, 
onerous  and  irksome,  and  abandoning  it,  he  gave  his  entire  atten¬ 
tion  to  business  matters.  This  course  was  also  dictated  by 
extended  planting  interests  in  Virginia  and  the  cotton  belt.  The 
children,  as  they  grew  up,  were  sent  to  the  best  schools  in  the  coun¬ 
try,  and  the  Brookfield  home  became  noted  for  its  genial  and  open- 
hearted  hospitality. 

When  the  war  between  the  States  was  seen  to  be  inevitable  the 
four  sons  of  the  family,  though  scattered  hundreds  of  miles  apart, 
were  among  the  very  first,  in  their  various  localities,  to  take  up  arms 
to  resist  invasion.  All  lived  to  return  home  excepting  the  eldest, 
who  was  killed  at  Sailor’s  Creek  three  days  before  the  general 
collapse  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  at  Appomattox;  and  all 
served  as  long  as  life  lasted  and  the  flag  floated,  excepting  the 
youngest,  who  was  disabled  for  life  in  front  of  Atlanta  in  1864. 

Grief  over  the  failure  of  the  South  to  drive  back  the  invaders, 
despite  their  overwhelming  numbers  and  resources,  killed  many 
old  men  in  that  unhappy  section.  Dr.  Floyd  was  one  of  them. 
He  left  Virginia  in,  apparently,  a  contented  frame  of  mind,  accom¬ 
panied  by  Mrs.  Floyd,  to  visit  a  daughter,  Mrs.  Perkins,  in  Ala¬ 
bama.  He  was  weak  and  ill  when  they  arrived  at  Mr.  Perkins’ 
home,  and  was  immediately  put  to  bed.  But  the  doctors  could  do 
nothing;  his  recuperative  powers  had  departed;  and  he  survived 
only  a  few  days,  dying  on  December  4,  1866.  Mrs.  Floyd  returned 
to  Virginia  and  made  her  home  among  the  majority  of  her  children, 
going  from  one  to  another  as  her  sense  of  impartiality  or  of  motherly 
duty  might  dictate;  and  always  carrying  sunshine  into  the  house 


35 


DR.  N.  W.  FLOYD2  AND  ELIZABETH  W.  ANDERSON 

blessed  by  her  presence.  Like  her  husband  she  passed  away 
without  physical  suffering,  as  gently  as  an  infant  might  fall  asleep, 
on  September  23,  1883.  In  Spring  Hill  cemetery,  near  Lynchburg, 
they  rest  side  by  side. 

Children  of  Dr.  Nathaniel  W.2  and  Elizabeth  (Anderson) 

Floyd 

1.  Charles  Anderson  Floyd3,  born  February  8,  1821.  Mar¬ 
ried  Mildred  J.  Perkins,  of  Virginia,  November  18,  1845. 

2.  John  Nelson  Floyd,  born  May  19,  1823.  Died  in  early 
youth. 

3.  Twins,  died  in  infancy,  February  19,  1825. 

4.  Nathaniel  Bedford  Floyd,3  born  September  19,  1826. 
Married  Ellen  Macklin  Stith  of  Texas,  May  16,  1855. 

5.  Nicholas  Jackson  Floyd3,  born  December  11,  1828. 
Married  Mary  Margaret  Morrow  of  Louisiana,  October  11,  1865. 

6.  Annie  Pauline  Floyd3,  born  July  22,  1831.  Married 
Colonel  Henry  Ward  Adams  of  Virginia,  December  4,  1853. 

7.  Mary  Almira  Floyd3,  born  November  8,  1833.  Married 
James  Augustus  Wiggins  of  Alabama,  September  16,  1858. 

8.  Elizabeth  West  Floyd3,  born  December  25,  1835.  Mar¬ 
ried  Alexander  Spottswood  Perkins  of  Alabama,  February  25, 

1857- 

9.  John  Buchanan  Floyd3,  born  April  28,  1838.  Married 
Fannie  Maria  Harris  of  Alabama,  December  4,  1867. 

10.  Samuel  Garland  Floyd,  born  February  9,  1841.  Died  in 
infancy. 

11.  Letitia  Preston  Floyd3,  born  July  26,  1842.  Married 
Captain  John  C.  Featherston  of  Alabama,  January  19,  1864. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  DR.  AND  MRS.  N.  W.  FLOYD.2 

Charles  Anderson  Floyd3  (Nathaniel2  Charles.1),  eldest  son 
of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  N.  W.  Floyd,  was  born  at  “Locust  Grove,”  the 
ancestral  home  of  his  mother  in  Bedford  County,  Va.,  February 
28,  1821.  He  was  educated  in  the  private  schools  of  Lynch¬ 
burg  and  at  the  New  London  Academy,  Va.  He  was  an  unusu¬ 
ally  manly  and  adventurous  youth,  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen 
years  he  rode,  on  horseback,  from  Lynchburg,  Va.,  eight  hun¬ 
dred  miles  through  a  sparsely  settle  region,  to  Bond  County, 
Illinois,  on  a  visit  to  his  paternal  grandmother,  wTho  had,  after 


36 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


she  became  a  widow,  made  her  home,  chiefly,  with  a  married  daugh¬ 
ter  in  that  State. 

On  November  18,  1845,  he  married  Miss  Mildred  Jane  Perkins, 
only  daughter  of  Mr.  Hardin  Perkins,  a  prominent  merchant  of 

Nelson  C.  Hv  Va.,  and  his  wife,  Miss - Mosby,  who  was 

an  aunt  of  the  gallant  Colonel  John  S.  Mosby,  the  celebrated 
partisan  commander,  whose  brilliant  deeds,  in  the  Valley  of  Vir¬ 
ginia,  made  him  famous,  and  gave  that  section  the  pseudonym  of 
“Mosby’s  Confederacy.”  Mrs.  Floyd  also  numbered  among  her 
noted  cousins,  within  the  third  degree,  the  distinguished  cavalry 
commander,  General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  and  many  cousins  belonging 
to  the  Cabell,  Randolph  and  Lewis  families  of  Virginia. 

After  President  Lincoln’s  call  for  troops  to  invade  the  Southern 
States,  Mr.  Floyd  aided  in  organizing  a  cavalry  company  to  resist 
the  invasion.  As  he  had  passed  the  fourth  decade  of  his  life  he 
refused  to  accept  an  office,  insisting  that  young  men  in  the  early 
vigor  of  manhood,  and  with  military  schooling  or  training,  should 
be  chosen  to  lead.  His  command  fought  under  Colonel  Radford 
at  the  first  battle  of  Manassas  or  Bull  Run,  and  was  later  brigaded 
with  other  Virginia  cavalry  under  the  gallant  General  Thomas  T. 
Munford.  He  was  in  the  first  charge  which  precipitated  the  Fed¬ 
eral  rout  at  Manassas;  and,  later  in  a  different  command,  he  was 
killed  in  the  last  serious  charge  which  forced  the  Federals  to  make 
a  confused  recoil  upon  their  rear,  at  Sailor’s  Creek,  three  days 
before  the  general  collapse  at  Appomattox. 

The  historian  Howison  says  of  that  last  battle:  “In  all  the  clos¬ 
ing  conflicts  of  this  gigantic  war,  the  Confederates  won  successes 
whenever  they  were  not  fatally  outnumbered.  On  the  6th  (April, 
1865)  General  Grant  attempted  to  turn  the  right  of  the  Southern 
army  at  Hatcher’s  Run,*  and  received  a  repulse  so  bloody  and 
decisive  that  his  troops  had  to  be  withdrawn.” 

A  companion  who  was  only  a  few  rods  behind  Mr.  Floyd  when 
he  fell  (Captain  Camp,  later  of  the  municipal  force  of  Lynchburg, 
Va.)  reported  to  the  writer:  “The  Federals  had  attempted  to 
turn  our  right  flank,  but  we  had  stopped  them  and  started  them  on 
a  run,  some  of  them  firing  back  occasionally.  We  knew,  of  course, 
that  they  had  greatly  superior  numbers,  and  our  only  hope  was  to 
keep  them  moving.  We  were  dismounted,  and  in  our  pursuit, 
through  the  thick  forest  growth,  we  came  upon  a  forester’s  cabin 
with  an  enclosed  yard  and  stable  lot.  Being  tall  and  athletic,  and 


*Mr.  Howison  erroneously  substituted  “Hatcher’s  Run”  for  Sailor’s  Creek. 


CHARLES  A.  FLOYD3  AND  MILDRED  J.  PERKINS 


37 


a  swift  runner,  Mr.  Floyd  was  the  first  over  the  fence,  and,  running 
half  across  the  lot,  he  sprang  upon  a  pile  of  stable-bedding  ana 
trash,  to  get  a  better  view,  and  shouted  back:  ‘Hurry  up  boys! 
we  mustn’t  give  them  time  to  rally!’  At  that  instant  a  bullet 
pierced  his  heart,  killing  him  so  suddenly  that  not  a  muscle  twitched 
after  we  reached  him.” 

He  was  buried  near  by,  with  some  fifteen  or  eighteen  others,  in 
the  silent  forest.  Years  passed  before  members  of  the  family 
could  make  a  search  for  his  grave,  and  then  it  could  not  be  found. 
No  better  man  or  braver  soldier  sacrificed  his  life  in  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia. 

The  children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  Anderson  Floyd3  were: 

1.  John  Perkins  Floyd4,  named  for  the  only  brotherof  his 
mother,  born  in  1846.  Died  in  early  youth. 

2.  Charles  Anderson  Floyd4,  Jr.,  born  in  1848.  Became  a 
cotton  planter  and  died  in  Texas  unmarried. 

3.  Walter  Preston  Floyd4,  born  in  1850.  Became  a  prom¬ 
ising  lawyer.  Went  to  Mexico  for  his  health  in  1880,  and  died 
there. 

4.  Nathaniel  St.  George  Floyd4,  born  in  1852.  Became  a 
successful  merchant  and  general  business  man  in  Texas,  and  died 
there  unmarried. 

5.  Virginia  Cabell  Floyd4,  born  1854.  Died  in  Texas,  un¬ 
married. 

6.  Ida  Louise  Floyd4,  born  1856.  Died  in  Lynchburg,  Va., 
unmarried. 

7.  Belle  Miller  Floyd4,  born  1858.  Married  a  cousin — 
Macklin  Stith  Floyd.  They  have  six  children:  Eleanora5, 
born  1882.  Marienne  Stith5,  born  1884.  Walter  Miller5,  born 
1887.  Mildred  Perkins5,  born  1890.  Nathaniel  Bedford5,  born 
1892,  and  George  May5,  born  1895. 

8.  Mary  Chalmers  Floyd4,  born  i860.  Married  Robert 
Weisegar,  of  Port  La  Vacca,  Texas.  She  was  divorced  from  Mr. 
Weisegar  and  resumed  her  family  name.  Children,  St.  George 
Preston  Floyd5,  born  1893,  and  Elena  Floyd5,  born  1896. 

9.  John  Buchanan  Floyd4,  born  1862.  Married  Mildred 
Lewis,  daughter  of  Dr.  J.  Stuart  Lewis  of  Florida,  a  direct  de¬ 
scendant  of  General  Andrew  Lewis  who  did  gallant  service  in  com¬ 
mand  of  a  regiment  during  Braddock’s  disastrous  campaign  against 
the  French  and  Indians  at  Fort  du  Quesne,  now  Pittsburg,  Pa., 
in  1755;  and  won  immortal  fame  as  the  Commander-in-Chief  in 
the  epoch-making  Battle  of  Point  Pleasant,  in  1774,  which  broke 


3S  FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 

the  spirit  of  the  savages  throughout  the  vast  territory  northwest 
of  the  Ohio  River.  He  was  so  highly  esteemed  by  Washington 
that  when  the  latter  was  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Revolutionary  forces  he  expressed  regret  that  General  Lewis  had 
not  been  given  the  appointment. 

On  her  mother’s  side,  Mrs.  Floyd  is  descended  from  the  Scotch- 
French  Stuarts,  a  collateral  branch  of  the  royal  Stewarts  of  Ber¬ 
wickshire,  Scotland.  Mr.  Floyd  is  a  popular  and  prosperous 
business  man  of  St.  Augustine,  Florida.  They  have  two  bright 
and  interesting  daughters,  Ida  Lewis  and  Edith  Stuart.  The 
former  has  iust  graduated  from  the  High  School  of  her  city,  win¬ 
ning  First  Honors  and  a  Scholarship  at  Stetson  University. 
Several  papers  of  the  State  speak  in  very  high  terms  of  her  Vale¬ 
dictory  address. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  DR.  AND  MRS.  N.  W.  FLOYD2 
(Continued) 

Nathaniel  Bedford  Floyd3  (Nathaniel2,  Charles1)  second 
son  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Floyd,  who  lived  to  maturity,  was  born  Sep¬ 
tember  ig,  1826,  and  was  educated  in  the  private  schools  of  Lynch¬ 
burg,  Va.,  and  at  Emory  and  Henry  College.  In  early  life  he 
evinced  a  roving  disposition,  which  is  a  characteristic  of  many  of  his 
blood,  and  in  1850  he  made  a  trip  to  California,  and  spent  a  winter 
in  prospecting  the  gold  fields  of  that,  then,  new  and  wonderful 
country.  He  returned  the  following  summer,  accompanied  by 
his  younger  brother,  N.  J.  Floyd,  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien, 
as  it  was  then  called,  tramping  along  a  trail,  from  Panama  to  a 
point  on  the  Chagres  River  known  as  Gorgona,  which  the  aborig¬ 
ines  had  tramped  for  unnumbered  centuries  before  Columbus 
discovered  America;  and  along  the  greater  portion  of  which  the 
Panama  Canal  is  now  being  dug.  Procuring  a  dugout  boat  at 
Gorgona  they  floated  down  to  a  little  village,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  which  the  natives  called  Colon — accent  on  the  second  syl¬ 
lable — which  name  the  Americans  attempted  to  change  to  “Aspin- 
wall”  some  years  later  when  a  railway  was  built  from  it  to  Panama. 

After  returning  from  his  Pacific  Coast  expedition,  che  young 
man  settled  a  plantation  on  the  Guadalupe  River  in  the  southwest¬ 
ern  portion  of  Texas,  near  the  town  of  Victoria,  and  became  a 
prominent  cotton  planter.  About  two  years  later  he  married 
Miss  Ellen  Macklin  Stith,  only  daughter  of  Judge  Macklin  Stith 
and  his  wife,  Miss - Epps,  of  Wharton  County,  Texas. 


COLONEL  N.  B.  FLOYD3  AND  ELLEN  M.  STITH 


39 


Early  in  their  married  life  Judge  and  Mrs.  Stith  removed  from 
Notaway  County,  Va.,  where  both  were  members  of  prominent 
families,  and  they  soon  became  equally  as  prominent  in  Texas, 
where  the  Judge  found  both  honors  and  wealth. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  War  between  the  States,  Colonel  Floyd 
joined  others  in  the  organization  of  the  Sixth  Texas  Regiment  and 
went  into  military  service  at  Arkansas  Post.  Early  in  January, 
1863,  General  T.  J.  Churchill,  commanding  the  garrison  of  5000, 
but  having  only  3000  muskets,  was  attacked  by  a  Federal  force 
numbering  30,000  infantry,  commanded  by  General  John  Mc- 
Clernand,  aided  by  Admiral  Porter’s  fleet  on  the  Arkansas  River, 
and  after  a  desperate  conflict,  which  lasted  for  more  than  five 
hours,  the  little  garrison  was  overwhelmed. 

After  the  fall  of  the  Post,  Colonel  Floyd  was  assigned  to  duty 
with  the  general  staff,  as  an  ordnance  officer,  whose  special  charge 
was  to  transport  cotton  by  wagon  trains  from  southwestern  Texas 
to  Mexico;  there  to  be  exchanged,  by  barter  or  otherwise,  for  fire¬ 
arms,  ammunition  and  such  other  military  stores  as  might  be 
procurable.* 

The  task  had  its  serious  and  trying  difficulties;  for  though  cot¬ 
ton  was  plentiful,  and  greatly  in  demand  in  Mexico  for  shipment 
to  Europe,  the  motive  power  available  for  its  transportation  was 
rapidly  diminishing.  Horses  and  mules  had  become  scarce,  and 
slow  ox-teams  had  to  be  largely  resorted  to.  This  made  matters 
embarrassing  for  the  ordnance  officer  writh  “headquarters  in  the 
saddle,”  who  was  liable,  at  any  time,  to  receive  a  peremptory 
oral  requisition  for  the  pick  of  his  teams  to  make  a  bivouac  meal 
for  some  hungry  squadron  of  scouting  cavalry.  And,  across  the 
border,  in  Mexico,  the  Rurales  were  certainly  not  more  considerate. 

After  the  war  Colonel  Floyd,  being  in  possession  of  several 
large  plantations  in  the  most  fertile  portion  of  Texas,  was  tempted 
by  the  phenomenally  high  price  of  cotton,  to  attempt  its  culti¬ 
vation  again,  despite  the  general  demoralization  which  succeeded 
the  collapse  of  military  affairs.  Labor  was  plentiful,  was  anxious 
for  profitable  employment,  and  had  not  yet  been  prejudiced  against 
the  former  slave-holders,  by  the  advance  “missionary”  scouts 
who  were  tramping  through  the  country  seeking  to  organize  the 
negroes  into  “Societies,”  “Leagues”  and  “Schools”  inimical  tc 

*After  the  above  was  in  type  Colonel  Floyd,  in  a  personal  interview,  desired  the 
statement  made  that  the  Confederate  States  Government  did  not  promote  him  to 
a  Colonelcy.  After  the  battle  of  Arkansas  Post  his  Texas  friends  dubbed  him  a 
colonel  in  the  usual  “nem.  con.”  manner  of  that  State.  His  rank  was  captain. 


40 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


the  white  people.  Among  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  officials  sent 
to  “promote  order”  in  the  South,  however,  many  of  those  who  had 
done  active  service  with  the  Federal  armies  in  the  field,  were  real 
friends  of  the  negro,  and  not  mere  hateis  of  the  Southern  people, 
and  were  sufficiently  broad-minded  to  see  that  the  welfare  of  the 
negroes  themselves  demanded  that  they  should  not  be  goaded  to 
too  high  a  degree  of  animosity  toward  those  who  had  been  their 
owners,  and  wTere  now  their  employers  and  natural  friends.  But 
the  class  which  had  been  merely  prison  guards  or  camp-followers, 
united  with  the  non-military  rabble,  male  and  female,  carried  the 
day  and  organized  the  negroes,  generally,  into  various  “Leagues, 
“Orders”  and  “Schools,”  which,  at  least,  kept  them  too  busy  to 
admit  of  work  in  the  cotton  fields. 

After  contending  with  these  tremendous  disadvantages  for 
two  years,  and  sinking  thousands  of  dollars,  Colonel  Floyd  decided 
to  abandon  the  small  army  of  family  servants  and  laborers,  most 
of  whom  had  remained  faithful  and  friendly,  and  take  his  young 
family  within  the  influence  of  such  civilization  as  he  might  find 
yet  existing  in  the  country  around  his  old  home  in  Virginia.  There 
he  purchased  valuable  real  estate  and  became  a  permanent  and 
popular  resident.  Mrs.  Floyd  died  March  3,  1902,  at  their  home 
in  Lynchburg,  Va.  The  Colonel,  though  now  in  his  eighty-sixth 
year,  is  in  fairly  good  health  and  still  enjoys  the  companionship 
of  his  friends. 

The  children  of  Col.  and  Mrs.  N.  B.  Floyd3  are: 

1.  Macklin  Stith  Floyd4,  born  in  1857.  Married  his  cousin, 
Belle  Miller  Floyd4.  The  names  of  their  children  have  already 
been  recorded.  He  resides  in  Amherst  County,  Va.,  but  has  an 
estate  in  Texas  where  the  winters  are  spent.  Recent  information 
states  that  two  of  his  daughters  are  married.  Eleanora  is  the 
wife  of  Mr.  Edwin  J.  Turner,  a  substantial  and  prominent 
citizen  of  Amherst  County,  Virginia.  They  have  a  little  girl 
named  Frances  Floyd,  born  in  19x1.  Marienne  Stith  married 
Mr.  H.  Sutton  Peyton,  also  a  popular  resident  of  Amherst  — a 
gentleman  of  scientific  attainments,  who  has  charge  of  a  Gov¬ 
ernment  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  They  have  two  chil¬ 
dren:  Floyd,  born  in  1905,  and  Virginia,  born  in  1908. 

2.  Nathaniel  Wilson  Floyd4,  born  in  1859.  Educated  at 
the  University  of  Virginia,  and  devoted  his  talents  to  newspaper 
work.  Died  unmarried,  in  Houston,  Texas,  where  he  had  estab¬ 
lished  a  State-wide  reputation  as  an  editorial  writer. 

3.  Leonidas  Beauregard  Floyd4,  born  in  1861.  Married 


COLONEL  N.  B.  FLOYD3  AND  ELLEN  M.  STITH 


41 


Mrs.  Dora  Beresford,  a  widow,  of  England,  1897.  No  children. 
For  a  number  of  years  he  held  important  positions  in  the  clerical 
department  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  and  the  Southern  Rail¬ 
roads,  going  ultimately  to  reside  in  New  York. 

4.  Charles  Anderson  Floyd4,  born  in  1865,  and  named  for 
an  uncle  killed  in  the  War  between  the  States.  He  early  evinced 
a  fondness  for  music  and  the  fine  arts,  and  became  a  remarkably 
fine  performer  on  the  piano.  He  possesses  a  pronounced  literary 
taste  and  talent  which  he  has  neglected.  Accepted  the  position  of 
manager  of  a  branch  of  the  Southern  Railroad’s  business  in  Flor¬ 
ida.  Is  unmarried  and  has  an  estate  in  Bedford  County,  Va. 

5.  Jesse  Anderson  Floyd4 — (Nathaniel3,  Nathaniel2,  Charles1), 
born  in  1868.  Married  Miss  Ethel  Weaver,  a  daughter  of  one  of 
the  old  families  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  They  have  two  child¬ 
ren,  Frank5,  born  in  1897  and  Macklin  Stith5,  born  a  few  years 
later. 

6.  Ellen  Stith  Floyd4,  born  in  1870;  married  first  Robert 
Panned,  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  from  whom  she  was  divorced.  Some 
years  later  she  married  Albert  Kramer,  a  speculator  in  tobacco, 
of  Richmond,  Va.  They  have  one  daughter  by  the  name  of 
Nathalia  Floyd,  born  in  1900. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  DR.  AND  MRS.  N.  W.  FLOYD2 
(Continued) 

Nicholas  Jackson  Floyd  3 — (Nathaniel2,  Charles1),  the  third 
son  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  N.  W.  Floyd,  who  lived  to  the  age  of  maturity, 
was  born  December  11,  1828,  and  on  October  11,  1865,  married 
Miss  Mary  Margaret  Morrow,  of  Minden,  La.  at  the  beautifiul 
home  of  her  parents,  Hon.  James  Madison  Morrow  and  his  wife 
Elizabeth  Lewis  Kennon. 

Mr.  Morrow  was  a  representative  of  his  people  in  the  State 
Legislature,  and  a  large  merchant  and  cotton  planter  of  his  sec¬ 
tion  in  North-Louisiana.  He  was  a  son  of  Ewing  G.  Morrow, 
Esq.,  and  his  wife  Sarah  Gilham  of  Georgia,  both  of  prominent 
and  popular  families  of  that  State. 

Mrs.  Morrow  was  a  daughter  of  Thomas  Kennon,  Esq.,  and  his 
wife  Lucy  Broadnax  Brooken,  who  moved  to  Louisiana  from  Geor¬ 
gia  in  1838.  Her  grandparents  were  Hon.  Richard  Kennon  and 
his  wife  Cecil  Broadnax  who  moved  to  Georgia  from  North  Caro¬ 
lina  in  1803;  and  her  great-grandparents  were  Major  William 
Kennon — the  fourth  of  the  Kennons  in  direct  line  to  serve  as  mem- 


42 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


bers  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  in  Colonial  Virginia — and  his  wife 
Elizabeth  Lewis,  daughter  of  Colonel  Charles  Lewis  “of  the  Byrd.” 
It  was  for  this  ancestress  that  Mrs.  Morrow  was  named. 

Major  William  Kennon  and  his  wife  Elizabeth  Lewis  moved 
to  North  Carolina  from  Virginia  about  1769.  A  few  years  later 
he  was  elected  to  the  General  Assembly  of  that  State.  When 
trouble  with  England  became  acute  he  advocated  independence, 
and  was  an  enthusiastic  supporter  and  signer  of  the  Mecklenburg, 
N.  C.,  Declaration  of  Independence.*  He  served  gallantly  in 
the  Revolutionary  War,  achieving  rank  as  a  field  officer,  and  after 
the  war,  was  a  member  of  the  first  Legislative  Assembly  of  the 
sovereign  State. 

Commodore  Beverly  Kennon,  who,  with  several  members  of 
President  Tyler’s  cabinet,  was  killed  by  the  explosion  of  a  gun 
on  the  gunboat,  Princeton,  was  a  relative  of  Mrs.  Morrow.  So 
also,  are  the  Byrds,  the  Skipwiths  and  the  family  of  Blands  to 
which  General  R.  E.  Lee  is  allied. 

N.  J.  Floyd  was  educated  in  the  private  schools  of  Lynchburg, 
the  Abingdon,  Va.,  Academy,  and  Emory  and  Henry  College. 
After  seeing  something  of  his  own  country,  and  of  some  distant 
lands,  he  commenced  business  life  as  the  owner  and  editor  of  the 
Athens  (Alabama)  Herald,  and  was  a  strenuous  advocate  of  States’ 
Rights,  and  a  strict  construction  of  the  Constitution.  His 
paper  soon  came  into  prominent  notice  on  account  of  his  success 
in  exposing  the  social  and  political  heresies  of  an  influential  paper 

*This  Declaration  was  made  by  a  convention  of  26  prominent  men  of  North  Caro¬ 
lina,  on  May  20,  1775,  more  than  a  year  before  the  Declaration  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  July  4,  1776.  The  original  signed  draft  of  the  North  Carolina  document 
was  burned  when  the  Mecklenburg  Court  House  was  destroyed  by  fire  on  Aprii 
30,  1819.  A  certain  class  of  iconoclastic  historical  writers  affect  to  discredit  this 
early  Declaration  because  “it  contains  phrases  similar  to  certain  passages  in  the  gen¬ 
eral  Declaration  of  the  next  year.”  It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  such  writers 
that  the  “certain  passages”  may  have  been  inspired  by  the  similar  “phrases”  of 
the  Mecklenburg  document.  Major  William  Kennon,  the  sixth  signer  of  the 
North  Carolina  Declaration,  was  a  very  prominent  man  before  he  left  Virginia, 
and  had  been  a  member  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses.  His  father-in-law  in 
Virginia,  Colonel  Charles  Lewis,  was  also  a  very  prominent  man  both  socially  and 
politically.  It  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  the  former  failed  to  send  the  latter  a 
copy  of  the  startling  resolutions.  Besides,  there  were  twenty-five  other  widely 
known  leading  men  who  were  members  of  the  Convention — willing  and  eager 
heralds  of  rebellion  against  Great  Britain.  To  suppose  that  the  leading  patriots 
of  the  country,  generally,  had  not  read  and  digested  the  bold  declarations  made  at 
Mecklenburg,  would  be  to  suspect  the  Patriot  Fathers  of  a  lack  of  intelligent  alert¬ 
ness  and  enterprise. 


CAPTAIN  N.  J.  FLOYD3  AND  MARY  M.  MORROW 


43 


of  the  State,  and  causing  its  interloping  editor  to  leave  the  South. 
But  his  editorial  career  was  closed  the  next  year  by  his  father 
calling  on  him  to  enter  a  more  active  life;  and  he  became  the  man¬ 
ager  of  large  cotton  planting  interests  in  Texas  and  Alabama. 
While  thus  engaged  serious  political  trouble  between  the  States 
commenced,  and  Virginia  seceded  from  the  Union.  More  than  a 
year  before  he  had  become  first  lieutenant  of  a  cavalry  company, 
composed  of  his  Alabama  neighbors,  and  designed  to  fight  John 
Brown’s  outlaws  in  Virginia,  or  any  similar  gang  elsewhere.  Now 
that  more  serious  trouble  had  begun,  he  and  the  other  young 
officers  reorganized  the  company  as  infantry,  and  taking  it  to 
Richmond  offered  it  for  service  during  the  impending  war. 

They  found  volunteers  centering  on  Richmond  from  every 
direction,  and,  meeting  there  other  Alabama  companies,  the  Ninth 
Alabama  Regiment  was  organized  and  put  under  the  command  of 
Cadmus  M.  Wilcox  who  had  resigned  from  the  United  States 
army.  Being  ordered  to  Winchester,  the  regiment  was  there 
brigaded  with  other  regiments  and  put  under  the  command  of 
Brigadier  General  E.  Kirby  Smith,  also  a  former  United  States 
army  officer. 

On  the  morning  after  the  brigade  was  formed  orders  were  re¬ 
ceived  to  go  by  forced  marches  to  reinforce  General  Beauregard, 
at  Manassas,  who  was  about  to  be  attacked  by  a  greatly  superior 
force.  A  part  of  the  brigade,  including  the  Ninth  Regiment,  was 
ordered  to  hurry  through  Paris  Gap  to  Piedmont  Station,  now 
called  Delaplane,  and  thence  by  train  to  Manassas.  Several 
regiments  got  off,  but  before  the  turn  of  the  Ninth  Regiment  came, 
an  unfortunate  wreck  blocked  the  line  until  the  next  morning. 
The  troops  which  went  forward,  however,  when  within  five  miles 
of  Manassas  heard  the  noise  of  conflict  some  miles  off  to  the  left, 
and  stopping  the  train  they  dashed  through  forests  and  fields  in 
a  straight  line  for  the  roar  of  battle,  arriving  in  the  nick  of  time 
to  outflank  a  large  force  of  the  Federal  army  which  was  advancing 
rapidly  to  turn  the  left  flank  of  the  Confederate  position;  thus,  by 
a  brilliant  charge,  changing  an  impending  disaster  into  a  quick 
and  decisive  victory.  General  Smith  was  severely  wounded  by  a 
musket  ball  through  the  lungs,  which  was  thought  to  be  mortal, 
and  after  a  time  Colonel  Wilcox  was  promoted  to  the  command 
of  the  brigade. 

The  defeat  at  Manassas  made  it  necessary  for  the  Federal  gov¬ 
ernment  to  organize  another  army  before  making  another  invasion; 
and  during  the  succeeding  summer  and  winter  months  General 


44 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


Wilcox  converted  his  raw  mass  of  citizen-soldiers  into  a  fighting 
aggregation  as  finely  disciplined  and  as  gallant  as  any  that  helped 
to  make  the  fame  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  During  the 
resting  spell  Lieutanant  Floyd  was  sent  to  Alabama  to  enlist 
recruits,  and  on  his  return  was  appointed  Judge  Advocate  of  the 
Regimental  Court  Martial.  He  thus,  perhaps,  influenced  to  some 
extent,  the  discipline  of  the  organization,  which,  during  the  suc¬ 
ceeding  campaign,  and  all  subsequent  campaigns,  wrote  its  name 
high  upon  the  roll  of  honor  as  “Wilcox’s  Alabamians.” 

In  the  spring  of  186-2  the  brigade  was  the  first  ordered  to  break 
camp  at  Manassas  and  go  by  forced  marches  to  the  Yorktown 
Peninsula,  to  reinforce  the  11,000  troups  under  General  Magruder 
who  were  threatened  by  General  McClellan  with  110,000  troops 
of  all  arms — “The  finesc  army  on  the  planet,”  as  it  was  boastingly 
described  by  the  Northern  papers.  After  McClellan  had  been 
delayed  in  the  vicinity  of  Yorktown  for  several  weeks  the  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia  retired  leisurely  up  the  Peninsula  to  Wil¬ 
liamsburg  where,  being  too  closely  followed,  Longstreet’s  Corps 
paused  for  a  day  to  deliver  a  stunning  Parthian  blow — thence  to 
Seven  Pines  and  Fair  Oaks,  in  the  vicinity  of  Richmond,  and  the 
various  fields  made  famous  by  the  succeeding  seven  days  of  almost 
continuous  fighting  in  the  Chickahominy  Swamps,  which  culmi¬ 
nated  in  the  retreat  of  the  magnificent  Federal  army  to  Malvern 
Hill;  from  which,  after  another  hotly  contested  battle,  they  made 
a  hasty  retreat,  in  the  night,  to  Harrison’s  Landing,  where  the 
presence  of  the  Federal  fleet  rendered  them  safe  from  further  attack. 

Then  “to  the  right  about,”  a  quick  march  of  nearly  one  hundred 
miles,  in  the  hot  August  days,  brought  the  Southerners  to  their 
first  battle-ground  on  the  fields  of  Manassas,  where  they  met 
General  Pope  with  his  “Head  Quarters  in  the  Saddle,”  and  sent 
him  and  all  his  “quarters,”  as  well  as  his  army,  in  eager  pursuit 
of  “lines  of  retreat”  which  they  had  no  time  to  “study”  but  which 
instinct  urgently  suggested  lay  in  the  direction  of  Washington  City. 

Then,  without  stopping  to  “count  noses,”  into  Maryland  and  on 
to  Sharpsburg,  or  Antietam,  before  September  nights  had  modified 
the  August  heat.  After  that  hotly  contested  battle,  in  which  each 
army  was  fought  to  a  “standstill,”  the  Confederate  army  returned 
leisurely  to  Virginia  to  spend  the  winter  near  Fredericksburg. 
But  before  preparations  for  the  winter  were  commenced  another 
invading  army  crossed  the  Potomac  into  Virginia  and  soon  General 
Burnside  with  113,000  troops  was  throwing  up  earthworks  on 
Stafford  Heights  and  along  the  river  opposite  Fredericksburg. 


CAPTAIN  N.  J.  FLOYD3  AND  MARY  M.  MORROW 


45 


On  December  n,  the  first  shot  in  the  bombardment  of  Fredericks¬ 
burg  was  fired  at  the  break  of  day,  and  on  the  13th  Burnside 
threw  the  greater  part  of  his  army  across  the  river  and  sustained 
a  crushing  defeat,  which,  for  the  next  year,  was  referred  to  by 
papers  both  North  and  South,  as  the  “Horror  of  Fredericksburg.” 

In  that  battle  a  large  number  of  General  Lee’s  65,000  men  were 
without  shoes,  and  wore  moccasins,  made,  Indian  fashion,  out  of 
half  dried  beef  hides  which  General  Lee  had  ordered  to  be  issued 
to  officers  and  men  who  had  worn  out  their  shoes  in  the  campaigns 
of  the  summer.  Lieutenant  Floyd’s  negro  servant,  who  was 
half  Indian,  made  him  a  fancy  pair  of  moccasins,  which  caused 
him  to  “fall”  during  the  battle,  more  than  once,  because  the  warm 
sun  converted  a  coating  of  snow  into  a  slush  which  softened  the 
rawhide,  and  caused  a  pair  of  number  seven  moccasins  to  stretch 
into  number  ten  galoshes. 

A  few  days  after  the  “Horror  of  Fredericksburg”  Wilcox’s 
Brigade  went  into  winter  quarters  in  a  pine  thicket  between  Chan- 
cellorsville  and  Salem  church,  and  had  a  quiet,  restful  time  for 
nearly  four  months,  which  brought  mild  April  days,  and  also 
brought  “Fighting  Joe  Hooker”  with  132,000  troops,— another 
“finest  army,” — to  fight  Wilcox’s  Alabamians,  and  such  other 
troops  of  General  Lee’s  army  as  they  might  scare  up  in  the  pine 
thickets  along  the  Rappahannock  River. 

During  the  winter  Lieutenant  Floyd,  whose  health  was  failing, 
had  been  promoted  to  a  Captaincy  and  assigned  to  duty  with  the 
general  staff,  as  Assistant  Paymaster  and  Quartermaster  of  his 
old  command.  In  the  discharge  of  these  duties,  as  a  mounted 
officer,  unrestrained  by  military  law  and  usage  from  acting  on 
his  own  volition  and  sense  of  duty,  in  the  absence  of  special  orders, 
he  was  enabled  to  see,  in  one  battle,  more  of  the  general  action  of 
an  army  in  the  shifting  scenes  of  conflict,  than  he  had  seen  in  the 
past  two  years  of  campaigning.  Considering  that  the  Federals 
had  largely  over  double  the  forces  of  the  Confederates,  he  regarded 
the  decisive  victory  of  the  latter  at  Chancellorsville,  the  first 
battle  he  had  an  opportunity  to  criticise  from  observation,  as  a 
brilliant  achievement,  without  parallel  in  American  history. 

At  Gettysburg,  on  the  second  day  of  the  battle,  Wilcox’s  Ala¬ 
bamians  and  Wright’s  Georgians  charged  the  Federal  forces  on 
Little  Round  Top,  driving  everything  before  them  and  reaching  the 
battery  on  the  apex  of  the  elevation;  when,  failing  to  receive  ex¬ 
pected  support  from  the  remainder  of  Anderson’s  division,  and  being 
assailed  by  overwhelming  reinforcements  on  the  Federal  side,  the 


46 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


two  decimated  brigades  were  forced  to  make  a  hasty  and  somewhat 
disorganized  retreat  over  the  bowlders  and  steeps  up  which  they 
had  climbed  almost  to  victory,  and  their  losses  were  fearfully 
heavy.  Hearing  immediately  of  the  distressing  disaster,  Captain 
Floyd,  who  was  attending  to  official  duties  in  the  rear,  rode  in  to 
look  after  personal  friends,  and  to  render  such  aid  as  might  be  in 
his  power  at  the  field  hospital  of  his  command.  His  personal 
friend,  and  former  superior  officer,  Captain  J.  C.  Featherston  of 
the  Ninth  Alabama,  he  found  seriously  wounded,  but,  as  no  bones 
were  broken,  he  put  him  upon  his  horse,  after  his  wounds  had  been 
dressed,  and  took  him  to  his  own  headquarters  in  rear  of  the  field 
hospital. 

On  the  next  day,  when  Pickett’s  celebrated  charge  had  reached 
the  Federal  line  of  battle,  and  the  tide  seemed  to  be  turning  against 
his  gallant  troops,  a  courier,  riding  at  speed  in  quest  of  General 
Lee,  shouted,  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  as  he  passed  Captain  Floyd’s 
quarters:  “Pickett  has  been  disastrously  repulsed  and  the  enemy 
are  expected  to  make  a  counter-charge  all  along  the  line.”  A  few 
minutes  later  a  courier  dashed  up  to  Captain  Floyd  with  orders 
to  see  that  every  empty  wagon  and  other  vehicle  be  filled  with 
wounded  soldiers,  carrying  their  guns,  and  dispatched  to  a  named 
point  some  miles  in  the  rear.  Also,  if  possible,  to  put  a  wounded 
officer  of  the  line  in  command  of  the  train. 

Explaining  that  a  sudden  emergency  had  arisen  Captain  Floyd 
after  issuing  necessary  orders,  insisted  that  his  wounded  friend 
take  command  of  the  train  and  go  in  General  Wilcox’s  head¬ 
quarters  ambulance.  To  this  the  young  officer  strenuously  objected 
on  account  of  some  stringent  general  order  which  had  been 
recently  issued.  While  the  matter  was  being  earnestly  and  excit¬ 
edly  urged,  Captain  Featherston,  seeing  General  Lee,  accompanied 
by  half  a  dozen  staff  officers  and  couriers,  dashing  along  a  wagon 
trail  through  the  broomsedge,  which  passed  within  ten  feet  of 
Captain  Floyd’s  tent — and,  doubtless,  being  partly  off  his  balance 
from  weakness,  excitement  and  chagrin  because  a  crisis  had  arisen 
while  he  was  unable  to  be  at  the  head  of  his  company, — expressed 
his  determination  to  appeal  to  General  Lee  for  advice  or  orders. 
This  was,  of  course,  earnestly  protested  against,  but  forcibly 
throwing  off  the  tight  grasp  of  a  detaining  hand,  the  young  officer 
threw  himself  in  front  of  the  approaching  horsemen  and  saluted. 
General  Lee,  reining  up  his  horse  sharply  and  returning  the  salute, 
asked  in  a  quiet  tone  of  voice,  “  What  is  it  Captain?”  The  young 
officer,  speaking  with  nervous  rapidity,  explained  the  matter 


CAPTAIN  N.  J.  FLOYD3  AND  MARY  M.  MORROW 


47 


briefly  and  asked  to  be  advised  or  ordered.  The  great  commander, 
doubtless  instantly  understanding  the  situation,  replied  calmly: 
“I  advise  you  to  consult  the  Chief  Surgeon,  Captain.”  And  then, 
half  turning  in  his  saddle  and  pointing,  he  added  with  a  fatherly 
tone  and  manner:  “You  will  find  his  tent  just  in  rear  of  mine, 
beyond  that  clump  of  small  trees.”  With  the  loud  roar  of  artil¬ 
lery  and  musketry  reverberating  among  the  hills  and  hollows  of 
the  battlefield,  and  the  apprehension  of  fearful  disaster  assailing 
all  hearts,  the  incident  made  an  indelible  impression  on  the  minds 
of  the  few  who  witnessed  it. 

But  Captain  Featherston  went  in  charge  of  the  train;  the  Fed- 
erals  were  too  wise  to  attempt  a  counter-charge;  the  excitement 
was  over  before  nightfall;  and  the  young  man  had  realized  that 
only  a  very  great  man  could  have  given  him  an  audience  under 
the  circumstances  and  conditions  existing  at  the  moment,  with 
such  admirable  courtesy  and  sympathy  of  manner. 

During  the  next  spring  and  summer — 1864— when  the  strength 
of  the  South  was  more  than  half  exhausted,  Captain  Floyd  wit¬ 
nessed,  and  participated  in,  one  of  the  must  remarkable  campaigns 
recorded  in  history.  General  U.  S.  Grant,  the  stubborn  fighter 
of  the  West,  had  come  to  take  personal  charge  of  military  affairs 
in  Virginia.  With  the  slogan  “On  to  Richmond  in  ten  days”  his 
troops  crossed  the  Rapidan,  May  5th,  and  were  assailed  by  the 
Confederates  in  the  Wilderness  a  few  miles  from  Chancellorsville.* 
Notwithstanding  his  stubborn  tenacity,  his  ten-day  “hammering 
at  the  gates  of  Richmond,”  after  having  lengthened  into  sixty 
days,  found  him,  with  his  back  to  Richmond,  on  the  opposite  side 

*Doubt  has  been  expressed  with  reference  to  the  expectation  of  General  Grant’s 
army  to  capture  Richmond  in  a  quick,  rushing  campaign;  but  considering  the 
strength  and  equipment  of  the  army  and  the  deservedly  high  reputation  of  Gen¬ 
eral  Grant,  it  was  not  an  unreasonable  anticipation.  The  writer  knows,  personally, 
that  it  was  the  expectation  of  at  least  one  intelligent  officer  whom  he  interviewed 
while  a  prisoner  on  the  field  of  battle. 

When  the  fighting  in  the  Wilderness  commenced,  Wilcox’s  Alabama  Brigade  had 
not  left  their  winter-quarters  near  Culpeper  Court  House,  and  they  listened  to  the 
booming  of  General  Grant’s  artillery  in  the  Wilderness,  less  than  twenty  miles 
distant,  while  packing  their  camp  equipage.  When  they  approached  the  scene  of 
conflict  along  a  narrow  road  through  the  dense  growth  of  small  nondescript  oaks, 
they  met  a  large  number  of  prisoners  being  conducted  to  the  rear.  The  two  meet¬ 
ing  lines  crowded  the  road  and  soon  a  staff  officer  pushed  forward  and  ordered  the 
Alabama  brigade  to  halt  and  clear  their  side  of  the  road  and  the  prisoners  the  other 
side,  in  order  to  allow  some  ammunition  wagons  to  pass  without  delay.  After 
the  two  lines  had  pushed  back  to  clear  the  way,  the  writer  observed  an  intelligent 
looking  officer  just  opposite  himself,  and  spurring  his  horse  across,  he  saluted  and 


48 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


of  James  River,  and  making  a  subterranean  “hammering”  with 
pick  and  shovel  and  blasting  powder,  upon  the  earthworks  in  front 
of  Petersburg. 

During  the  terrific  fighting  at  Spottsylvania,  May  12,  General 
Grant,  enthused  by  the  temporary  success  of  “Hancock  the  su¬ 
perb,”  at  the  “Bloody  Angle,”  had  declared  he  would  “fight  it 
out  on  that  line  if  it  took  him  all  summer.”  Now,  with  the  summer 
just  beginning  to  get  warm,  after  General  Lee  had  defeated  him 
again  and  again,  and  had  inflicted  on  his  army  losses  that  exceeded 
the  total  number  of  troops  in  General  Lee’s  army,  he  had  abandoned 
“that  line”  and  tried  to  slip  into  Richmond  by  the  back  door  which 
had  been  intended  for  General  Butler,  now  safely  “bottled  up” 
by  General  Beauregard  at  Bermuda  Hundred.  One  month  was 
enough  “all  summer”  on  that  line,  for  General  Grant. 

After  the  springing  of  the  mine  at  Petersburg  and  the  resulting 
butchery  of  the  “  Battle  of  the  Crater” — the  focal  point  of  which 
was  taken  by  Wilcox’s  Alabama  Brigade,  following  and  complet¬ 
ing  the  brilliant  charges  of  Mahone’s  Virginia,  and  Wright’s 
Georgia  Brigades — than  which  there  were  none  more  gallant — 
Captain  Floyd  was  ordered  to  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department 
with  dispatches  to  his  old  brigade  commander,  now  Lieutenant 
General  E.  Kirby  Smith,  commanding  all  the  troops  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River  with  headquarters  at  Shreveport,  La.  Stop¬ 
ping  a  day  at  Lynchburg  to  see  his  aged  parents,  he  learned  that 
his  younger  brother,  Captain  John  B.  Floyd  of  Wheeler’s  Cavalry, 
had  been  wounded  and  permanently  disabled  in  a  battle  near 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  and  could  not  be  sent  home  with  only  the  assistance 

addressed  him  pleasantly:  “Excuse  me,  Captain,  but  what  are  they  doing  back 
there  in  this  tangled  thicket,  to  kick  up  such  an  infernal  racket?” 

“Oh;— well;”  replied  the  young  officer,  with  a  smile  on  his  handsome  features 

which  somewhat  resembled  the  snarl  of  a  tiger,  “Your  man  Lee  is  playing  h - 

with  us; — has  about  1800  of  us  in  this  squad  and  will  gobble  up  the  whole  outfit 
before  tomorrow  morning  I  guess.” 

“I  don’t  anticipate  anything  half  so  glorious,”  was  the  reply,  “and  I  see  you  do 
not  really  anticipate  such  a  disaster.  But,  of  course,  we  are  going  to  get  the  best 
of  it,  as  usual.  Now  be  equally  candid  and  tell  me  what  you  really  think  of  it.” 

Just  then  the  ammunition  wagons  swept  along  in  a  brisk  trot,  causing  all  to  clear 
the  way  hurriedly.  As  the  two  lines  got  into  the  road  to  resume  the  march,  the 
young  Captain  said  quietly  but  impressively: 

“I  will  reply  to  your  inquiry; — sorry  to  dampen  your  pleasant  anticipation, 
but  before  tomorrow’s  sun  goes  down,  Grant  will  slap  your  man,  Lee  and  his  little 
army  aside,  as  a  lion  would  a  hare,  and  march  straight  on  to  Richmond,  without 
paying  any  further  attention  to  him.”  And  the  half-mirthful,  half-masterful  look 
in  his  eyes  indicated  that  he  believed  what  he  predicted  would  come  to  pass. 


CAPTAIN  N.  J.  FLOYD3  AND  MARY  M.  MORROW 


49 


of  his  colored  servant.  He  also  found  another  trouble  almost 
equally  as  serious.  The  Federal  general,  David  Hunter,  in  his 
attempt  to  capture  Lynchburg,  had  permitted  his  troops  to  appro¬ 
priate  every  living  animal  and  fowl  on  the  plantation,  and  to  haul 
away,  in  army  wagons,  all  the  bacon  and  flour  stored  for  a  year’s 
supply  of  the  family  and  over  fifty  negro  servants  and  laborers. 
All  these  he  found  living  on  coarse  corn  bread,  supplemented  by 
stewed  apples  and  garden  vegetables.  Closets  and  bureaus  had 
been  broken  open  and  plundered,  and  in  the  general  destruction 
even  an  old  Stradivarius  Cremonensis  violin  which  the  young 
man’s  maternal  great-grandfather  had  captured  in  Tarleton’s  camp 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  had  been  taken  out  and  smashed 
against  a  gatepost. 

For  the  first  time  in  his  military  career  the  young  man  held 
military  orders  in  abeyance  and  gave  immediate  obedience  to  a 
higher  duty.  Patriotism,  like  charity,  begins  at  home.  Going  to 
Georgia  he  made  arrangements  to  have  bacon  shipped  to  his  par¬ 
ents,  and  obtaining  his  brother’s  release  from  the  hospital,  he  took 
him  and  his  servant  back  to  the  old  Virginia  home.  Then  he  became 
again  a  Confederate  soldier,  under  orders  from  the  War  Depart¬ 
ment  and  set  out  again  on  his  long  journey. 

Arriving  by  train  at  Jackson,  Miss.,  he  found  there  was  no  train 
service  westward  to  the  river.  Still  more  embarrassing  was  the 
fact  that  all  spare  horses  and  mules  had  been  taken  out  of  the  sec¬ 
tion,  for  military  service,  and  only  one  horse  could  be  found  for 
sale.  While  vainly  searching  for  another,  on  which  to  mount  his 
colored  servant,  he  came  across  a  stranded  soldier  trying  to  make 
his  way  from  his  command  in  Georgia  to  the  Trans-Mississippi 
Department — Captain  Spear,  a  stockraiser  of  northern  Texas — 
sick,  emaciated,  barely  able  to  walk  and  with  nothing  but  a  sick 
furlough  in  his  pocket.  Mounting  him  upon  the  purchased  horse, 
Captain  Floyd  and  his  servant  tramped  by  his  side,  until,  on  the 
second  day,  a  man  with  a  light  wagon  was  found  who  contracted 
to  give  the  party  “a  lift”  of  over  one  hundred  miles  to  the  forest 
home  of  an  experienced  blockade-runner  above  Natches. 

Arrived  there  and  hidden  in  the  woods,  the  party  remained 
nearly  a  week  before  conditions  seemed  favorable  to  make  a  ven¬ 
ture.  Then,  in  the  dense  darkness  of  a  moonless  night,  a  twenty- 
foot  dugout  canoe  was  brought  out  from  a  confluent  bayou,  the 
plan  being  to  swim  the  horse  at  the  stern  of  the  canoe.  The  ani¬ 
mal,  however,  became  frantic  with  fear  in  the  deep  water  of  the 
river,  and  seemed  recklessly  determined  to  paw  at  the  stars,  instead 


5° 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


of  trying  to  swim.  In  this  way  he  came  perilously  near  wrecking 
the  expedition  several  times  before  it  was  half  a  mile  from  the 
shore.  But  he  finally  became  physically  exhausted  and  was  dragged 
by  the  bit,  with  his  nose  above  water,  the  remaining  two  miles 
to  the  Louisiana  shore;  where  it  took  a  full  quart  of  whiskey  to 
convince  him  that  he  was  not  drowned.  Then,  though  weak  and 
wobbly  on  his  legs,  he  tried  to  be  frisky!  He  was  an  amusingly 
disreputable  horse. 

The  party  was  now  in  danger  of  being  picked  up  by  scouting 
Federals  at  any  hour,  but  the  fortunate  possession  of  a  valuable 
diamond  ring  put  the  young  man  in  possession  of  two  fine  young 
horses  in  a  region  where  a  bale  of  Confederate  money  would  not 
have  bought  a  yearling  colt;  and  in  less  than  three  days  he  reached 
the  Confederate  lines  at  Alexandria  on  the  Red  River.  There  he 
impressed  a  small  privately  owned  steamboat  in  which  the  party, 
and  the  horses,  finished  the  eventful  journey  to  Shreveport. 

After  delivering  the  dispatches  and  resting  some  days  at  Gen¬ 
eral  Smith’s  headquarters,  he  was  ordered  to  take  charge  of  the 
Post  at  Minden,  La.,  thirty  miles  east  of  Shreveport,  and  have 
such  preparations  made  there  as  might  be  necessary  for  the  win¬ 
tering  of  the  army  at  that  point. 

In  that  beautiful  little  college  town  with  its  broad  and  well 
shaded  “Parallelogram”  of  handsome  homes,  the  young  man  found 
a  young  lady  who  “knew  something  of  war  herself,”  having,  with 
other  pupils,  “retreated”  from  her  school,  the  “Athenaeum,”  in 
Columbia,  Tenn.,  “before  heavy  columns  of  Federal  troops.”  It 
was  but  natural  that  they  should  become  fast  friends. 

Among  the  troops  wintered  in  the  vicinity  of  Minden  was  the 
Second  Infantry  Division  commanded  by  Major-General  Carlos 
T.  Polignac,  a  young  French  prince,  who,  according  to  army 
sub  rosa  tattle,  came  to  the  South  as  a  representative  of  the 
devoted  patriotism  of  a  charming  young  lady  of  Huntsville,  Ala., 
whose  parents  were  residing  in  Paris  and  Switzerland  with  the 
hope  of  restoring  her  to  health.  After  the  two  young  men  had 
become  well  acquainted  Captain  Floyd  was  offered  a  desirable 
promotion  in  the  Prince’s  Division,  but  red-tape  complications, 
growing  out  of  the  former  being  a  heavily  bonded  officer,  and  doubts 
as  to  the  possibility  of  procuring  an  effectual  cancellation  of  his 
bond,  which  had  been  given  in  Virginia,  caused  him  to  decline  the 
proposition. 

During  the  last  week  in  February  the  Second  Infantry  Division 
was  ordered  out  of  winter  quarters  and  sent  to  a  point  on  Red 


CAPTAIN  N.  J.  FLOYD3  AND  MARY  M.  MORROW 


51 


River  below  Shreveport.  Some  weeks  later,  after  all  troops  had 
departed  from  Minden,  Major  Eglin,  a  member  of  General  Polig- 
nac’s  staff,  who  had  accompanied  him  from  France,  came  alone 
on  horseback  to  Captain  Floyd’s  quarters  and  in  a  highly  excited 
state  of  mind  stated  confidentially  that  General  Polignac  accom¬ 
panied  by  his  Chief-of-Staff,  Major  Moncure,  and  by  Colonel 
Miltenberger,  a  military  Aide-de-camp  to  General  H.  W.  Allen, 
Governor  of  Louisiana,  had  left  Shreveport  on  a  secret  mission, 
which,  he  gathered  from  scraps  of  conversation  overheard  by  him 
at  General  Smith’s  headquarters,  was  to  pass  through  Texas  and 
enter  Mexico  at  Matamoras.  He  felt  assured  that  a  scheme  was 
on  foot  for  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department,  acting  independ¬ 
ently,  to  form  a  secret  military  alliance  with  Maximilian,  Emperor 
of  Mexico,  and  thus  seek  to  win  the  influence,  and  the  possible 
aid,  of  Louis  Napoleon,  Emperor  of  France,  to  establish  a  great 
American  Empire  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  Other  theories 
were  almost  equally  startling;  and  his  feelings  were  exceed¬ 
ingly  resentful  toward  both  General  Smith  and  the  Prince,  partly 
perhaps,  because  he  had  been  entirely  ignored,  and  the  latter  had 
failed  to  make  any  explanation  of  his  intended  absence,  and  even  to 
bid  him  adieu.  His  brooding  over  the  matter  had  so  excited  him 
that  no  argument  could  make  him  see  the  improbability  of  his  sur¬ 
mises.  On  the  contrary,  he  affirmed  his  fixed  determination  to  con¬ 
tinue  his  journey  to  Richmond,  Va.,  and  report  his  suspicions  to 
President  Davis,  “even  at  the  risk  of  being  treated  by  him  as  a 
deserter  and  traitor.”*  The  next  day  after  the  chivalrous  but 
self-willed  young  Frenchman  had  taken  leave — almost  tearfully — 
news  came,  informally,  that  General  Polignac  had  “left  the  army 
on  a  six  weeks’  furlough.”  Why  had  he  waited  for  the  spring 
campaign  to  open? 

During  the  latter  part  of  April  the  heart-crushing  news  spread 
through  the  country  that  General  Lee’s  army  had  been  over¬ 
whelmed  by  numbers  and  resources;  and  soon  General  Smith  issued 
a  patriotic  general  order  stating  that  fact,  and  declaring  to  the 

*Some  years  ago  the  writer  read  a  letter  written  by  Prince  Polignac,  in  which  he 
contradicts,  inferentially,  the  old  rumor  that  he  had  an  interview  with  Maximilian 
of  Mexico;  but  admitted  that  he  went  to  Paris  accompanied  by  his  Chief-of- 
Staff,  Major  Moncure,  and  also  by  Colonel  Miltenberger,  a  military  aide-de-camp 
of  General  Allen,  Governor  of  Louisiana.  He  also  admitted  having  procured  an 
interview  with  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon,  and  having  left  on  the  table  at  which  the 
Emperor  and  himself  sat,  a  document  sent  by  Governor  Allen,  the  contents  of  which 
he  had  not  read. 


52 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


troops  that,  if  they  held  out,  they  would  surely  and  speedily  receive 
the  aid  of  nations  which  already  deeply  sympathised  with  them, 
and  thus  the  Confederacy  might  yet  secure  final  success. 

Early  in  May  news  of  the  surrender  by  General  “  Dick”  Taylor 
of  the  troops  under  his  command,  in  the  department  composed 
of  Alabama  Mississippi  and  East  Louisiana,  reached  the  Trans- 
Mississippi.  This,  coupled  with  the  news  of  General  Joseph  E. 
Johnston’s  surrender,  had  a  distinctly  demoralizing  efEect,  but 
the  people  still  remained  quiet  and  despairingly  hopeful,  until  a 
member  of  the  courier  service — which  he  asserted  had  disbanded 
of  their  own  volition — came  to  Minden  late  at  night  and  informed 
Captain  Floyd  that  General  Smith  and  his  staff  had,  in  the  early 
morning  of  the  previous  day,  set  out  for  a  morning  ride  in  the 
country  and  as,  up  to  noon  of  that  day,  they  had  not  returned,  it 
was  assumed  that  they  had  set  out  for  Mexico,  and  the  rabble  of 
Shreveport  had  immediately  commenced  a  merry  looting  of  the 
government  stores  in  the  city,  in  which  some  soldiers  joined. 

This  informal  and  chaotic  ending  of  affairs  left  Captain  Floyd 
in  a  very  embarrassing  situation.  He  was  a  heavily  bonded  officer 
accountable  to  the  Confederacy  for  over  half  a  million  dollars 
worth  of  military  stores  and  property.  But,  the  Confederacy 
being  dead,  to  whom  or  to  what  was  he  responsible?  In  his  quan¬ 
dary  he  decided  that  having  no  official  information  of  the  abandon¬ 
ment  of  headquarters  at  Shreveport,  he  would  continue  to  pursue 
the  regular  routine  of  his  office  until  he  had  formal  information; — 
or  until  a  Federal  force  should  appear  to  which  he  would  make  a 
personal  surrender. 

There  were  hundreds  of  disbanded  soldiers  drifting  westward 
through  the  country,  homeward  bound,  and  he  sent  orders  to  all 
the  depots  in  his  district  to  issue  freely  to  them,  and  to  other  needy 
persons  applying,  the  subsistence  supplies  that  had  accumulated; 
but  strictly  military  supplies  were  to  be  kept  in  store.  As  a  con¬ 
sequence  there  was  no  disorder  in  any  part  of  the  district,  and  on 
the  last  day  of  May,  when  a  Federal  infantry  regiment  appeared 
at  Minden,  he  turned  over  the  military  stores,  and  more  than  3000 
bales  of  cotton,  to  the  colonel  commanding,  who  was  a  courteous 
gentleman  and  insisted  that  Captain  Floyd  should  reserve  such 
arms  and  ammunition  as  might  be  useful  to  him  on  his  contem¬ 
plated  trip  to  Mexico. 

But  the  young  man’s  plans  were  changed  by  the  decision  of  a 
non-military  “council,”  and  his  expedition  extended  only  to 
Wharton,  Texas,  where  he  arranged  for  the  cultivation  of  a  very 


CAPTAIN  N.  J.  FLOYD3  AND  MARY  M.  MORROW 


S3 


large  crop  of  cotton,  during  the  next  year.  The  extraordinarily 
high  price  of  cotton  was  enough  to  inspire  a  hope  of  future  fortune 
in  the  breast  of  even  a  “down  and  out”  Confederate. 

He  returned  to  Minden  early  in  October  and  on  the  eleventh 
day  of  that  month  was  married  to  Miss  Morrow,  as  has  been  pre¬ 
viously  stated.  As  the  railroads  had  been  destroyed,  and  there 
were  no  steamboats  to  ply  the  one  great  water  route  of  that  sec¬ 
tion,  the  bridal  trip  of  the  newly  married  couple  was  made  in  a 
double-team  army  ambulance  accompanied  by  two  colored  ser¬ 
vants  and  a  four-horse  army  wagon  to  transport  the  baggage  and 
camping  outfit.  The  journey  of  over  four  hundred  miles,  through 
a  very  thinly  settled  country,  was  made  in  twelve  days,  the  young 
people  sleeping  under  a  roof  only  one  night,  and  among  other 
adventures,  narrowly  escaping  being  drowned,  horses  and  all,  in 
attempting  to  ford  the  swollen  tide  of  the  Sabine  River  which 
marks  the  boundary  line  between  Louisiana  and  Texas. 

Arriving  in  Wharton  arrangements  were  made  with  an  ex- 
Federal  officer — Captain  Kirkpatrick  of  an  Illinois  regiment,  a 
refined  and  educated  gentleman — to  take  charge  of  the  field  man¬ 
agement  of  the  planting  operations  for  a  liberal  percentage  of  the 
gross  yield.  Labor  was  plentiful  and  the  colored  people  anxious 
to  make  a  crop  of  high-price  cotton  and  thus  get  a  start  in  the 
world.  But  before  the  first  cotton  blossom  had  appeared  the 
beginning  of  the  upheaval  of  social  order,  which,  later,  was  so 
ruinous  to  the  peace  and  material  prosperity  of  the  South,  had  com¬ 
menced  to  manifest  itself,  where  the  supervising  military  control 
was  stupidly  inefficient,  or  unreasonably  prejudiced  against  the 
white  people  of  the  country.  Such  military  control  soon  demor¬ 
alized  the  simple  minds  of  the  negroes  and  produced  a  paralysis 
of  industrial  activities  which,  coupled  with  damage  done  by  the 
armyworm,  caused  an  utter  failure  of  the  crop,  so  far  as  net  finan¬ 
cial  returns  were  concerned.  The  money  invested  was  a  clear 
loss  and  Captain  Kirkpatrick,  who  should  have  made  at  least 
$3000,  got  less  than  $300. 

In  March  of  the  succeeding  year  Captain  and  Mrs.  Floyd  with 
their  three-months-old  baby,  accompanied  by  a  stalwart  ex-marine, 
formerly  of  the  Federal  service,  a  Mr.  Gitchel  of  Maine,  as  the  only 
procurable  substitute  for  both  a  “valet  and  assistant  nurse-maid,” 
returned,  by  way  of  New  Orleans,  to  Minden,  La.  His  military 
duties  at  this  point  had  made  him  well  known  to  the  people,  and 
for  two  years  he  engaged  in  a  very  successful  and  profitable  mer¬ 
cantile  business.  But  the  conditions  he  had  seen  the  beginning  of 


54 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


in  Texas  soon  prevailed  in  Louisiana,  aggravated  by  military 
orders  designed  to  prevent  the  carrying  of  arms  by  white  men, 
and  imposing  heavy  penalties;  while  “loyal  citizens” — meaning 
only  the  negroes — were  permitted  to  roam  at  will  in  armed  bands 
over  the  country,  giving  free  rein  to  a  distorted  idea  of  “equality” 
with  which  the  Freedman’s  Bureau  and  its  so-called  “schools” 
had  indoctrinated  them.  The  time  honored  maxim  that  “A  brave 
people  honor  a  gallant  foe ”  had  failed  to  prove  itself  after  the  South  was 
disarmed.  This  was  particularly  true  of  the  class  of  people  who 
conducted  the  “Missionary  Schools”  and  of  many  of  the  Bureau 
agencies. 

After  a  time  the  resulting  conditions  brought  on  a  state  of  affairs 
that  was  entirely  unbearable,  and  as  appeals  to  the  military  power 
— the  Freedman’s  Bureau — were  often  worse  than  useless,  the 
substantial  people  were  compelled  to  appeal  to  Nature’s  first  law 
for  the  preservation  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  civilization. 

Many  yet  living  in  the  South, — especially  in  the  cotton  belt, — who 
rarely,  if  ever,  speak  of  these  matters,  know  that  only  the  terror 
inspired  by  the  sudden  midnight  appearance  of  a  mounted  platoon 
or  a  battalion  of  white  robed  avengers,  known  as  the  “K.K.K.,” 
and  their  silent,  almost  automatic,  execution  of  a  sentence,  pre¬ 
viously  passed  upon  a  criminal  or  a  chronic  law-breaker,  saved  the 
social  order  of  the  South  from  being  utterly  overwhelmed. 

As  Captain  Floyd  could  see  no  near  prospect  of  a  better  condi¬ 
tion  of  affairs  in  Louisiana,  he  determined  to  sacrifice  all  pecuniary 
interests  and  remove  his  little  family  to  the  home  of  his  childhood 
in  Virginia;  which  State,  though  now  only  a  part  of  a  military 
district,  without  authority  to  elect  and  commission  even  a  town 
constable,  was  less  harried  by  resentful  military  domination  than 
was  Louisiana;  and  certainly  possessed  a  more  intelligent  negro 
population,  which  would  be  less  liable  to  be  seduced  into  the 
plots  and  schemes  of  malicious  and  avaricious  interlopers. 

Arrived  and  settled  at  the  old  Brookfield  home,  he  simply 
“marked  time”  to  the  passing  of  events,  until  a  measure  of  civil 
liberty  was  granted  to  the  Old  Dominion.  Then  he  was  elected  a 
magistrate  and  gave  his  aid  in  the  first  efforts  to  harmonize  antag¬ 
onistic  social  elements  which  unwise  military  domination  and  dic¬ 
tation  had  rendered  dangerously  incongruent. 

And  later,  when  the  people  generally  had  become  sufficiently 
inspired  with  hope  for  the  future  of  the  country  to  consider  the 
matter  of  establishing  public  free  schools,  he  earnestly  advocated 
the  policy,  and  as  chairman  of  the  School  Board  of  his  District 


CAPTAIN  N.  J.  FLOYD3  AND  MARY  M.  MORROW 


55 


he  gave  his  mite  of  aid  toward  getting  the  system  established, 
perfected  and  popularized. 

In  the  year  1903  Captain  and  Mrs.  Floyd,  being  now  grandpar¬ 
ents,  and  the  business  interests  of  their  son-in-law  having  made  it 
necessary  that  he  should  change  his  residence  to  the  city  of  Balti¬ 
more,  decided,  after  taking  a  year  to  consider  the  matter,  to  follow 
the  young  people.  Accordingly  they  procured  and  fitted  up  a 
home  in  an  elevated  and  desirable  portion  of  that  handsome  South¬ 
ern  metropolis.  There,  in  the  pleasant  atmosphere  and  cheer¬ 
ful  surroundings,  which  young  people  give  to  a  home,  they  are 
quietly  and  contentedly  awaiting  the  period  of  old  age.  At  the 
threshold  of  1912  they  have  not  yet  reached  the  “old.” 

Captain  and  Mrs.  Floyd  have  but  one  child — Mary  Morrow 
Floyd4,  born  December  8,  1866,  at  Wharton,  Texas.  At  three 
months  of  age  she  was  taken  by  her  parents  to  Minden,  La.,  and 
in  1869  was  taken  to  a  permanent  home  in  Virginia.  She  was 
educated  in  the  private  school  of  the  Misses  Manson,  Lynchburg, 
Va.,  and  at  the  Montgomery  Female  College,  Christiansburg, 
Va.  On  November  29,  1892,  she  was  married  to  Howard  Lee 
Bowman,  son  of  William  Lovelace  Bowman  and  his  wife  Susan 
Eleanor  Hawkins,  both  of  old  and  leading  Virginia  families. 

Mr.  W.  L.  Bowman  was  a  prominent  and  popular  citizen  of 
Lynchburg  and  a  leading  tobacco  manufacturer.  His  most 
remote  American  ancestor,  Robert  Bowman,  a  stanch  Scotch  Pres¬ 
byterian,  came  over  in  1671  and  entered  a  large  tract  of  landon  the 
south  side  of  Swift  Creek  in  Henrico  County,  Va.  Later,  when 
the  county  was  divided,  that  portion  of  it  was  named  Chester¬ 
field  County.  In  the  year  1748  his  grandson,  also  named  Robert, 
inherited  the  property.  When  American  independence  was  de¬ 
clared  he  and  his  young  family  of  boys  were  devoted  patriots 
and  the  latter,  together  with  several  cousins,  became  patriotic 
soldiers.  Old  records  of  the  Revolutionary  War  period,  preserved 
in  the  State  Library  at  Richmond,  Va.,  show  that  eight  land  war¬ 
rants  were  issued  to  them  for  military  services  during  those  trying 
times;  none  of  the  warrants  were  for  less  than  three  years’  service. 
The  most  munificently  rewarded  of  the  family  was  Abraham 
Bowman,  who  was  the  great-grandfather  of  Howard  Lee  Bowman. 
He  was  awarded  7590  acres  for  six  years  and  ten  months  service  as 
Colonel  in  the  Continental  Line. 

Howard  Lee  Bowman  was  educated  at  the  Lynchburg  High 
School,  and  having  early  developed  a  talent  for  careful  and  syste¬ 
matic  business  methods  he  was  appointed  Secretary  and  Treasurer 


56 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


of  the  Virginia  Nail  and  Iron  Works.  Later,  as  Secretary  and  Treas¬ 
urer  of  the  West-Lynchburg  Furniture  Manufacturing  Company, 
he  acquired  a  familiarity  with  the  lumber  business  and  became  con¬ 
nected  with  the  R.  E.  Wood  Lumber  Company  of  Baltimore,  Md., 
which  owns  large  timber  properties  in  various  sections  of  the  South 
and  is  extensively  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  hardwood  lum¬ 
ber  for  which  a  demand  has  been  created  in  the  best  markets  of 
Europe  as  well  as  of  this  country. 

Children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  H.  L.  Bowman4.  (N.  J.  Floyd3, 
Nathaniel2  Charles1) 

1.  Mary  Floyd  Bowman5,  born  September  27,  1893 — Attend¬ 
ing  school  at  Fort  Loudoun  College,  Winchester,  Virginia.* 

2.  Nicholas  Jackson  Floyd  Bowman5,  born  September  13, 
1895 — Cadet  at  Augusta  Military  Academy,  Fort  Defiance,  Vir¬ 
ginia. 

Both  of  the  young  people  are  interested  in  their  school  work,  and 
are  successful  in  getting  distinctions  in  their  studies. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  DR.  AND  MRS.  N.  W.  FLOYD2 

(Continued) 

Annie  Pauline  Floyd3,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
N.  W.  Floyd,  was  born,  at  Brookfield,  Va.,  July  22,  1831.  She 
received  the  rudiments  of  her  education  in  the  school  of  Madam 
Henriques,  Lynchburg,  Va.,  but  went  early  to  the  finishing  school 
of  Mrs.  Carrington,  in  Richmond,  Va.,  finding  in  the  family  of  her 
cousin,  John  B.  Floyd,  then  governor  of  the  State,  the  motherly 
care  and  hallowed  influences  of  her  own  home  circle.  On  Decem- 

*This  little  lady,  listening  to  a  discussion  of  General  George  Rogers  Clark’s 
remarkable  Vincennes  campaign,  and  knowing  some  “Stories  from  History”  her¬ 
self,  interrupted  to  say:— “If  you  are  going  to  print  that  I  want  you  to  say  that 
Captain  Joseph  Bowman, — my  ’way  back,  very-great-grandfather,  ancestor,  or 
something, — did  as  much  as  any  Clark — or  Floyd  either,  for  that  matter — to  con¬ 
quer  the  West.  When  they  were  all  marching  through  snow,  and  swamps,  and  ice, 
to  catch  that  old  Canada  Governor,  who  hired  the  Indians  to  scalp  everybody,  the 
soldiers  didn’t  want  to  jump  into  the  frozen  river,  up  to  their  necks,  and  wade  across. 
Then  Captain  Bowman  drew  his  sword  and  jumped  in  and  told  them  to  follow  him; 
and  of  course  they  had  to  do  it!  But  for  that  General  Clark  never  would  have 
even  seen  the  mean  old  Governor — much  less  capture  him,  and  put  chains  on  him, 
and  send  him  to  Virginia!” 

Such  loyalty  to  name  and  family  deserved  to  win  the  point. 


COLONEL  H.  W.  ADAMS  AND  ANNIE  P.  ELOYD3 


57 


ber  6,  1853,  she  was  married,  at  the  old  Brookfield  home,  to  Colonel 
Henry  Ward  Adams,  a  descendant  of  a  Virginia  family  well  known 
in  Virginia  colonial  history.  His  father,  Thomas  Tunstall  Adams 
(who  married  Matilda  Ward,  daughter  of  Major  Henry  Ward, 
an  officer  of  the  Revolution)  was  a  son  of  Captain  Robert  Adams, 
who — in  connection  with  Colonel  Charles  Lynch,  his  brother-in- 
law,  and  Captain  James  Calloway,  also  a  kinsman — assumed  the 
task  of  keeping  in  subjection  the  Tories  living  among  the  foot¬ 
hills  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains  of  Virginia,  during  the  darkest 
days  of  Revolutionary  times.  Their  strenuous  activity,  in  punish¬ 
ing  traitors  to  the  American  cause,  gave  rise  to  a  new  appellation 
which  since  that  period  has  come  to  be  very  much  misused.  “Lynch 
Law,”  then,  meant  only  the  formal  decrees  of  the  self-constituted 
“Court”  composed  of  Colonel  Lynch  as  chief  justice,  and  Cap¬ 
tains  Adams  and  Calloway  as  associate  justices;  or,  if  the  case 
required  it,  as  attorneys  for  the  prosecution  and  defense.  The 
extreme  punishment  was  “forty  save  one”  lashes  upon  the  bare 
back,  and  the  enforced  cry  “Liberty  or  Death!”  A  recent  bio¬ 
grapher  says  of  this  grandson  of  the  second  in  importance  of  that 
famous  “Court:” 

“Colonel  Henry  Ward  Adams  took  an  active  part  in  the  defense 
of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  and  as  a  result,  lost  his  entire  estate. 
He  had  by  nature  a  kind  and  generous  heart  and  was  beloved  by 
all  who  knew  him.  There  never  beat  in  any  human  bosom  a 
braver,  more  generous  and  unselfish  heart  than  that  of  this  Chris¬ 
tian  gentleman.” 

The  writer  knew  Colonel  Adams  for  more  than  half  a  century 
in  his  picturesque  home,  “  Monteflora,”  overlooking  the  beautiful 
valley  of  Staunton  River,  from  the  lofty  hills  that  frown  above 
Ward’s  Bridge  (once  the  property  of  his  ancestors)  to  the  smiling 
slopes  which  form  a  pleasing  background  to  the  colonial  home- 
site  of  Colonel  Charles  Lynch,  already  alluded  to — and  during  his 
life  of  more  than  four-score  years  he  never  knew  a  friend  who  was 
more  free  from  the  ordinary  frailties  of  human  nature,  or  who  more 
consistently  practiced  all  the  cardinal  virtues.  He  died  December 
25,  1899,  in  his  home,  the  “Old  Mansion,”  erected  by  his  maternal 
grandfather  during  Revolutionary  days;  and  was  followed  on 
March  27,  1910,  by  his  faithful  and  ever  devoted  wife.  There  was 
not  a  home  in  all  that  section  which  their  departure  from  life  did 
not  darken  with  the  shadow  of  mourning. 

Genealogists  trace  Colonel  Adams’  family  back  to  Sir  John 
Adams  of  Wales  who  married  Lady  Elizabeth  de  Gournai,  a  direct 


58 


PLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


descendant  of  William  de  Warren,  first  Earl  of  Surrey.  An  old 
memorial  window  of  Tidenham  Church,  near  Chopston,  North 
Wales,  bears  the  name  as  given  in  Welsh:  “  Johes  ab  Adam,  1310,” 
underneath  the  Adams  coat  of  arms  described  as:  Argent:  on  a  cross 
gules,  five  mullets,  or.  Crest:  out  of  a  Ducal  Coronet,  a  demi-lion.  Motto: 
Loyal  au  mort. 

The  children  of  Colonel  H.  W.  Adams  and  Annie  P.  Floyd3 
his  wife,  are: — 

1.  Eliza  Matilda  Adams4,  born  October  3,  1854.  Died  in  the 
eighth  year  of  her  age. 

2.  Annie  West  Adams4  (Annie  Floyd3,  Nathaniel2,  Charles1), 
born  January  30,  1856.  Educated  at  the  Female  College  in  Salem, 
N.  C.  Married  October  18,  1876,  John  Floyd,  son  of  Flon.  Ben¬ 
jamin  Rush  Floyd,  an  able  lawyer  and  for  many  years  a  Represen¬ 
tative  in  Congress  of  the  Wytheville  District,  Va.  They  had  only 
one  child,  Otey  Rush  Floyd,5  named  for  his  uncle,  Congressman  P. 
J.  Otey  and  for  his  paternal  grandfather.  Born  October  5,  1880. 
He  developed  in  early  boyhood  an  infirmity  which  has  prevented 
him  from  taking  part  in  the  active  duties  of  life. 

3.  Nathaniel  Floyd  Adams4,  born  April  24,  1857.  Died  July 
20,  1875.  A  very  superior  young  man. 

4.  Thomas  Tunstall  Adams4,  born  July  15,  1859.  Married 
Annie  Lou  Stokes,  October  28,  1890.  He  received  his  education 
in  private  schools,  and  the  Virginia  Polytechnic  Institute  at  Blacks¬ 
burg,  and  was  awarded  a  gold  medal  by  the  latter.  Commenced 
business  life  at  Greenville,  Tenn.,  as  a  wholesale  dealer  and  manu¬ 
facturer  of  lumber.  Having  been  reared  in  a  tobacco  growing 
section  of  Virginia  he  recognized,  in  the  region  contiguous  to  Green¬ 
ville,  the  soil  and  climatic  conditions  favorable  to  the  production 
of  the  popular  bright  yellow  tobacco,  and  soon  convinced  the  farm¬ 
ers  that  the  lands  on  which  they  were  making  $20  per  acre,  in 
wheat  or  corn,  could  be  made  to  pay  $200  per  acre  in  bright  tobacco. 
The  result  was  a  revolution  in  farming  in  that  region.  With  admir¬ 
able  public  spirit  he  allowed  himself  to  be  put  in  the  lead  of  the 
movement,  and  soon  had  to  call  in  help,  both  physical  and  financial, 
to  provide  warehouses  and  handle  the  crops  of  bright  tobacco  for 
which  the  section  became  immediately  famous.  He  also  stirred 
up  the  people  to  establish  a  bank,  becoming  a  leading  stockholder 
himself,  and  putting  business  upon  a  substantial  basis.  He 
bought  the  timber  standing  on  thousands  of  acres  of  mountain 
land,  put  in  numerous  sawmills  of  the  best  class,  shipped  all  classes 
of  lumber  to  every  large  market  within  his  reach,  and  as  he  was 


COLONEL  H.  W.  ADAMS  AND  ANNIE  P.  FLOYD3  59 

supplying  a  steadily  rising  market  for  his  output,  he  amassed  a 
large  fortune  in  a  few  years. 

His  wife,  Annie  Lou  Stokes,  eldest  daughter  of  an  old  and  popu¬ 
lar  family  of  Danville,  Va.,  is  an  excellent  and  accomplished  house¬ 
wife.  Her  artistic  taste,  in  conjunction  with  that  of  her  husband, 
is  fittingly  displayed  in  the  building  and  outfitting  of  a  beautiful 
home,  1837  Monument  Avenue,  Richmond,  Va.  They  have  a 
charming  summer  home,  “Barrymore,”  among  the  verdant  hills 
of  Fauquier  County,  near  his  brother’s  home,  Whitehall,  and  the 
two  emulate  each  other  in  exemplifying  old-time  Virginia  hospi¬ 
tality. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  T.  X.  ADAMS4  (ANNIE  FLOYD3, 
NATHANIEL2,  CHARLES1) 

1.  Thomas  Stokes  Adams5,  born  July  28,  1891.  A  student  at 
the  Virginia  Military  Institute. 

2.  Annie  Floyd  Adams5,  born  June  10,  1897.  Died  June  18, 
1901. 

3.  Emma  Lawson  Adams5,  born  June  3,  1899.  Attending  pri¬ 
vate  school  in  Richmond,  Va. 

4.  Thomas  Tunstall  Adams,  Jr.5,  born  August  30,  1901. 

5.  Kirkwood  Floyd  Adams5,  born  January  29,  1904. 

6.  Geraldine  de  Gournai  Adams5,  “Little  Countess  of  Barry¬ 
more”  (her  parent’s  summer  home),  born  December  16,  1905. 

Continuing  the  Children  of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  H.  W. 

Adams3 

5.  Henry  Ward  Adams,  Jr.4,  born  August  29,  1861.  Married 
Leta  B.  Hardwicke,  daughter  of  a  prominent  physician  of  Marshall, 
N.  C.,  October  29,  1892.  He  was  educated  at  the  Virginia  Poly¬ 
technic  School  and  for  a  time  engaged  in  the  lumber  business 
quite  successfully;  but  obtaining  possession  of  two  river-bottom 
plantations,  “Monteflora,”  the  colonial  home  of  the  Ward  branch 
of  his  ancestry,  and  “Reed  Creek,”  once  the  property  of  his  ances¬ 
tor,  Captain  Robert  Adams  of  “Lynch  Law”  fame,  he  decided  to 
apply  his  energy  to  agriculture  and  stock  raising,  in  both  of  which 
abundant  energy  and  good  management  have  won  for  him  more 
than  average  success.  The  quaint  old  dwelling  on  the  former 
place  having  been  destroyed  by  fire,  he  erected  a  handsome  mod¬ 
ern  mansion  on  the  ancient  site,  with  its  old-fashioned  box-t-ees; 


6o 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


and  emulating  the  example  of  his  honored  father  and  mother, 
whose  home  it  was  when  burned,  he  and  his  excellent  lady  dispense 
old  Virginia  hospitality  to  all  who  come  within  their  gates. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  H.  W.  ADAMS4  (ANNIE  FLOYD,3 
NATHANIEL2,  CHARLES1) 

1.  Janie  Irene  Adams5,  born  February  n,  1894.  Now  pursu¬ 
ing  her  studies  at  the  Salem  Female  College,  Winston-Salem,  N.  C. 

2.  Annie  Floyd  Adams5,  born  December  3,  1895.  Died  in 
her  eighth  year,  1902. 

3.  Henry  Ward  Adams,  Jr.5,  born  October  10,  1897. 

4.  John  Buchanan  Adams5,  born  August  30,  1899. 

5.  James  Hardwicke  Adams5,  born  October  20,  1901. 

6.  Thomas  Tunstall  Adams5,  born  November  8,  1905. 

7.  Nicholas  Floyd  Adams5,  born  July  5,  1907.  Died  in  early 
infancy. 

Continuing  the  Children  of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  H.  W.  Adams3 

6.  John  Buchanan  Floyd  Adams4,  born  March  3,  1866. 
Married  on  July  28,  1899,  Lyde  Thompson,  daughter  of  Colonel 
John  M.  Thompson,  a  prominent  stock  raiser  and  land  owner  of 
Thompson’s  Valley,  Tazewell  County,  Va.  He  was  quick  to  see 
the  great  opportunities  which  the  people  of  that  well  timbered 
section  had  been  dozing  over  for  more  than  a  generation,  and  went 
into  business  as  a  timber  speculator  and  lumber  manufacturer. 
He  secured  a  large  territory  of  timber  in  Thompson’s  Valley  and 
by  building  a  cable  tramway  to  the  Clinch  Valley  Railroad  on 
the  opposite  side  of  an  intervening  range  of  mountains,  he  more 
than  doubled  the  cash  value  of  his  purchase.  His  enthusiasm, 
or  pride  of  success,  has  led  him  to  extend  his  operations  as  far  from 
home  as  Asheville,  N.  C.,  but  he  has  secured  a  home-nest  near  his 
brother  at  The  Plains,  Fauquier  County,  Va.,  by  the  purchase  of 
a  stock  farm,  to  which  he  and  his  will  retire  when  they  grow  tired 
of  the  untrammeled  life  and  rarefied  air  of  the  mountainous  regions 
of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  J.  B.  F.  ADAMS4,  (ANNIE  FLOYD3, 
NATHANIEL2,  CHARLES1) 

1.  Annie  Lyde  Adams5,  born  April  30,  1901. 

2.  Pearl  Thompson  Adams  died  in  infancy. 


COLONEL  H.  W.  ADAMS  AND  ANNIE  P.  FLOYD3  6 1 

3.  John  Thompson  Adams,  born  October  i,  1904. 

4.  Elizabeth  Floyd  Adams,  born  November  27,  1907. 

5.  Hallie  Ward  Adams,  born  January  25,  1909. 

Continuing  the  Children  of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  H.  W.  Adams3 

7.  Nicholas  Jackson  Floyd  Adams4,  the  youngest  of  Colonel 
Adams’  family,  was  born  on  January  19,  1870.  He  was  educated 
at  the  New  London  Academy,  Va.,  and  at  the  Poughkeepsie 
College,  N.  Y.  Emulating  the  example  of  his  brothers  he  made  an 
early  venture  in  the  lumber  business,  but,  meeting  with  a  series  of 
untoward  circumstances  and  conditions,  he  decided  to  turn  his 
attention  to  stock  and  agriculture.  On  May  17,  1899,  he  married 
Dasie  Thompson,  daughter  of  James  W.  Thompson,  Esq.,  and  his 
wife,  Marie  Alexander.  Mr.  Thompson  and  his  brother,  Colonel 
J.  M.  Thompson,  father  of  Mrs.  John  B.  F.  Adams,  were  sons  of 
Mr.  William  Thompson,  the  original  patentee  of  thousands  of 
acres  of  the  fine  grass  lands  in  Tazewell  County.  He  was  one  of 
the  first  to  attract  attention  to  that  region  as  peculiarly  adapted 
to  the  production  of  fine  cattle;  and  was  the  original  introducer  of 
improved  breeds  of  both  cattle  and  horses. 

Mr.  Adams,  after  a  tour  of  inspection  of  all  the  fine  stock- 
raising  lands  of  the  west  and  southwest,  finally  decided  to  locate 
in  Fauquier  County,  Va.,  near  Thoroughfare  Gap  of  Bull  Run 
Mountains,  in  the  heart  of  “Mosby’s  Confederacy,”  where  every 
hill  and  valley  has  a  tale  to  tell  of  that  brilliant,  daring  and  indomi¬ 
table  cavalry  leader.  He  succeeded  in  finding  a  body  of  cultivated 
land  large  anough  for  his  purposes  and  erected  a  handsome  mansion 
on  a  gentle  elevation  at  the  foot  of  which  lies  The  Plains,  a  neat  and 
thriving  railroad  town. 

Here  he  mapped  out  his  course  for  future  success  on  broad 
lines,  paying  particular  attention  to  the  breeding  of  fine  stock, 
making  a  specialty  of  fine  horses  and  the  production  of  extra  fine 
beef-cattle  for  the  northern  markets  and  the  export  trade.  And 
in  addition  he  cultivates  every  year  several  hundred  acres  of  his 
broad  fields  in  grain  crops,  with  a  hay  crop  as  an  important  item 
in  the  rotation;  thus  by  the  application  of  scientific  principles  and 
methods,  increasing  the  productive  capacity  of  his  land  more  than 
50  per  cent  within  less  than  a  dozen  years. 

Notwithstanding  his  absorbing  interest  in  these  activities  he 
finds  time  to  aid  in  the  banking  and  other  ambitious  enterprises 
of  the  little  town,  and  to  keep  a  fatherly  lookout  for  the  welfare  of 


62 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


the  public  school  system,  and  the  large  graded  school  which  he 
was  chiefly  instrumental  in  establishing  for  the  benefit  of  the  com¬ 
munity.  Like  his  father  and  brothers  he  loves  mankind — his 
“brothers  and  fellows” — and  his  amiable  wife  joins  him  in  mak¬ 
ing  their  beautiful  home  noted  for  its  cordial  and  ever-ready  hos¬ 
pitality. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  N.  J.  F.  ADAMS4  (ANNIE  FLOYD3, 
NATHANIEL2,  CHARLES1) 

1.  Nicholas  Jackson  Floyd  Adams,  Jr.5,  born  April  3,  1901. 
A  bright,  studious  youngster. 

2.  James  Thompson  Adams5,  born  September  28,  1903.  Ditto 
for  James. 

3.  Annie  Pauline  Adams5,  born  November  21,  1906. 

4.  Thomas  Tunstall  Adams5,  born  August  3,  1909. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  DR.  AND  MRS.  N.  W.  FLOYD,2 
(Continued) 

Mary  Almira  Floyd3  (Nathaniel2,  Charles1),  second  daughter 
of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  N.  W.  Floyd,  was  born  November  8,  1833,  at 
the  family  home,  Brookfield.  She  was  educated  in  the  private 
schools  of  Lynchburg  and  at  the  Episcopal  Female  School  of  Rev. 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Dame,  Danville,  Va.  On  September  16, 1858,  she  was 
married  to  Mr.  James  Augustus  Wiggins,  a  popular  young  planter 
of  Madison  and  Limestone  Counties,  Ala.  He  belonged  to  an 
old  and  prominent  family  of  South  Carolina,  and  his  relatives  in 
that  State,  as  well  as  the  few  who  have  wandered  from  the  hospit¬ 
able  shades  of  the  palmetto,  are  leading  and  popular  people. 

Children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  A.  Wiggins3 

1.  Annie  West  Wiggins4,  born  in  Alabama  in  1859.  In  1880 

she  married  Doctor - Faught,  of  Texas,  and  died  a  few 

years  later,  leaving  an  only  daughter. 

2.  Richard  A.  Wiggins,4  born  in  1861,  in  Limestone  County, 
Ala.  Married  in  Texas.  Has  one  child — perhaps  others — and 
is  a  successful  and  prosperous  business  man. 


MRS.  MARY  A.  WIGGINS3  AND  MRS.  ELIZABETH  W.  PERKINS3  63 

DESCENDANTS  OF  DR.  AND  MRS.  N.  W.  FLOYD2 
(Continued) 

Elizabeth  West  Floyd3,  the  third  daughter  of  Dr.  and  Mrs 
N.  W.  Floyd,  was  born  on  December  25,  1835.  With  her  next 
older  sister  she  was  educated  in  the  private  schools  of  Lynchburg 
and  at  the  Episcopal  Female  High  School  of  Rev.  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Dame,  of  Danville,  Va.  On  February  25,  1857,  she  was  married 
to  Alexander  Spottswood  Perkins,  of  Alabama,  only  son  of  Ben¬ 
jamin  Perkins,  a  merchant  and  planter  of  Virginia,  and  his  wife, 
Frances  Maria  Jones,  also  a  Virginian.  The  two  young  people 
were  cousins  in  the  second  degree,  and  had,  as  a  mutual  great¬ 
grandmother,  Frances  Barbour  Jones,  a  sisterly  intimate  and  first 
cousin  of  Martha  Dandridge  (Custis)  Washington. 

Mr.  Perkins  was  a  young  man  of  sterling  worth  and  an  admirable 
citizen  in  every  relation  of  life.  He  had  large  possessions  and  was 
one  of  the  largest  cotton  planters  in  North  Alabama,  as  the  por¬ 
tion  of  the  State  lying  north  of  the  Tennessee  River  is  called.  His 
health  had  been  delicate  for  some  time  before  the  War  between 
the  States,  and  after  his  section  was  overrun  and  held  by  Federal 
forces  he  sank  rapidly  and  died  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war. 
During  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  was  extremely  feeble,  and  his  prop¬ 
erty  was  an  easy  prey  to  all  military  marauders.  His  negroes,  who 
were  true  and  faithful  to  the  end,  were  able  to  protect  it  from  any 
other  class  of  looters,  but  when  men  came  in  Federal  uniforms  with 
army  wagons  and  mounted  officials,  they  were  intimidated.  Prop¬ 
erty  taken  from  the  different  plantations  embraced  numerous 
horses,  mules  and  wagons — oxen,  cows  and  hogs — thousands  of 
bushels  of  corn,  tons  of  bacon  and  flour,  etc.,  besides,  as  was  sworn 
to  by  a  number  of  reliable  negro  witnesses,  over  three  hundred  bales 
of  cotton  worth,  at  the  time,  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
per  bale — all  taken  without  his  consent,  frequently  without  his 
knowledge,  and  hauled  away  in  wagons  by  Federal  soldiers  in 
uniform  accompanied  by  mounted  officials. 

Some  years  after  the  war  an  effort  was  made  by  friends  of  Mr. 
Perkins,  through  the  United  States  Court  of  Claims,  to  get  for  the 
widow  and  children  some  slight  compensation  for  the  subsistence 
stores,  at  least,  which  were  known  and  proved  to  have  been  supplied 
to  the  military  forces  at  Huntsville,  Mooresville,  and  Athens.  But 
it  was  found  that  obstacles  put  in  the  way  were  insuperable. 


64 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


Children  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  A.  S.  Perkins3 

1.  Alexander  Spottswood  Perkins4,  born  in  1858.  As  soon 
as  he  attained  sufficient  age  he  engaged  in  a  country  mercantile 
business  which  he  conducted  with  considerable  success.  He  was 
delicate  and  died  unmarried  in  1887. 

2.  Elizabeth  West  Perkins,4  born  in  1862.  She  married, 
first  W.  J.  Douglas,  Esq.,  a  newspaper  owner  and  editor  of  Decatur, 
Ala.  A  second  marriage  was  with  Mr.  E.  Louis  Dodge,  of  Denison, 
Texas,  a  man  of  affairs  and  an  official  of  the  Missouri,  Kansas 
and  Texas  Railway.  She  lived  only  a  few  years  after  this  marriage 
and  left  an  infant  daughter  which  the  father  named  Diadema 
Floyd  Dodge. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  DR.  AND  MRS.  N.  W.  FLOYD2 
(Continued) 

Letittia  Preston  Floyd3  (Nathaniel2,  Charles1)  was  born  at 
the  family  mansion,  Brookfield,  on  July  26,  1842.  She  was  edu¬ 
cated  at  private  schools  in  Lynchburg  and  the  Botetourt  Female 
Institute,  Va.  When  but  little  more  than  twenty  years  of  age 
she  had  the  undesirable  experience  of  making  a  hasty  flight,  with 
some  other  young  ladies,  to  the  protecting  environments  of  Lynch¬ 
burg,  a  little  in  advance  of  the  notorious  General  David  Hunter 
and  his  marauding  troops,  who,  after  a  couple  of  days  skirmishing 
with  a  few  militia  soldiers  reinforced  by  old  men,  ambitious  boys 
and  convalescing  soldiers  from  the  hospitals,  made  a  hasty  retreat, 
during  the  darkness  of  night,  back  to  the  regions  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains.  It  was  said  at  the  time,  as  a  joke  founded  upon  fact, 
that  the  lucky  firing  of  a  solid  shot  by  the  Lynchburgers  after 
dark,  which  struck  and  smashed  a  large  kitchen  pot  in  which  Gen¬ 
eral  Hunter’s  supper  was  boiling,  while  he  and  his  staff  stood  around, 
caused  the  cry  to  be  started:  “Mosby’s  Guerrillas  are  sweeping 
down  from  Candler’s  Mountain!”  and  precipitated  the  hasty  re¬ 
treat  to  the  high  timber  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  But  the  historical 
fact  is  that  some  of  General  Early’s  troops  had  arrived,  and 
Hunter  had  learned  that  the  old  General  himself  was  there! 

On  January  19,  1864,  Miss  Floyd  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Captain  John  C.  Featherston,  of  Alabama,  a  gallant  young  offi¬ 
cer  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  He  was  a  son  of  Mr.  Howell 
Colston  Featherston — born  in  South  Carolina  of  Virginia  parent¬ 
age — and  his  wife,  Miss  Dulaney  Odom  of  North  Carolina. 


CAPTAIN  J.  C.  FEATHERSTON  AND  LETTIE  P.  FLOYD3  65 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Howell  C.  Featherston  settled  in  North  Alabama 
in  1816  when  that  section  was  known  as  the  Mississippi  Territory, 
and  acquired  an  extensive  tract  of  land,  which  became  very  valu¬ 
able  after  a  handsome  mansion  had  been  erected,  and  the  wild 
acres  converted  into  cotton  fields.  It  was  here,  near  the  beauti¬ 
ful  and  wealthy  residence  town  of  Athens,  that  the  young  man  was 
born  on  the  14th  day  of  August,  1837. 

He  was  educated  in  private  schools  and  the  Academy  at  Athens 
the  county  seat,  finishing  his  education  at  the  Kentucky  Military 
Institute.  On  leaving  college  he  found  his  father,  and  other 
gentleman  planters  who  had  pledged  themselves  to  push  a  rail¬ 
road  through  their  county,  had  suffered  the  enterprise  to  lag; 
and  putting  his  youthful  energy  into  the  matter,  he  assumed  his 
father’s  place  and  pushed  the  work  to  a  speedy  and  satisfactory 
conclusion,  building  a  county  railroad  which,  later,  became  a  link 
in  the  Louisville  and  Nashville  system. 

In  1859,  when  John  Brown  made  his  murderous  incursion  into 
Virginia,  Mr.  Featherston  joined  other  young  planters,  many  of 
whom  were  of  Virginia  families,  in  the  organization  of  a  cavalry 
company  which  they  desired  to  offer,  armed  and  equipped,  to 
Governor  Wise,  of  Virginia.  But  Brown  and  his  murdering  marau¬ 
ders  were  quickly  captured  by  United  States  troops  and  turned 
over  to  the  Virginia  authorities  to  be  tried  and  hanged  under  the 
laws  of  that  State.  Before  two  years  had  elapsed  Virginia  was 
again  invaded,  but  this  time  by  authority  of  a  President  and  Con¬ 
gress  elected  chiefly  by  States  whose  people  had  not  condemned 
Brown’s  murderous  outlawry,  and  large  majorities  of  whom  had 
openly  applauded  his  action;  and  also  applauded  certain  so-called 
religious  organizations  which  impiously  undertook  to  preach  him 
an  apotheosis  from  their  pulpits.  John  Brown  and  his  murderous 
gang  had  fulfilled  their  destinies  and  been  hanged  under  the  law's 
of  Virginia;  but  when  the  people  of  the  South  heard  the  campaign 
song,  which  made  musical  the  march  of  the  invaders  of  their  homes 
and  firesides,  they  realized  that  Brown’s  spirit  was  riding  upon  the 
whirlwind  of  popular  applause  in  the  North,  despite  the  assertion 
of  many  honest,  patriotic  papers  in  that  section,  that  such  mani¬ 
festations  of  misdirected  vindictiveness  were  confined  chiefly  to  the 
cranks  and  fanatics  among  the  ignorant  classes. 

The  song  was  very  melodious,  and  had,  as  an  oft-repeated 
refrain,  the  words: 


66 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


“John  Brown’s  body  lies  a-mouldering  in  the  ground, — 

II is  soul  is  marching  on! 

Glory — Glory — halleluiah!  (thrice  repeated) 

His  soul  is  marching  on!” 

That  refrain  gave  inspiration  to  the  invaders  from  the  first  cross¬ 
ing  of  the  Potomac  River  to  the  last  day  at  Appomattox.  And 
its  echo  sounded  down  through  many  succeeding  years.  Its  re¬ 
echo  is  still  heard  occasionally,  even  in  the  Halls  of  Congress. 

At  Atlanta,  Ga.,  the  refrain  gave  special  inspiration  to  General 
Sherman  when  he  had  the  entire  population  of  that  city,  men, 
women  and  children,  old  and  young,  driven  out  of  their  homes 
and  beyond  the  city  limits  in  the  bleak  month  of  November,  1864. 
And  he  graphically  described  the  condition  he  had  created  in  his 
famous  reply  to  the  protesting  Mayor  of  the  city:  “Yes;  war  is 
hell!”* 

Again  the  service  of  the  company,  to  repel  invasion,  was  offered, 
and  this  time  was  accepted  on  condition  that  it  disband  as  cavalry 
and  reorganize  as  infantry.  This  was  quickly  done  and  on  report¬ 
ing  at  Richmond  the  company  was  assigned  to  duty  as  “  Company 
F  of  the  9th  Alabama  Regiment”  which  already  had  a  nucleus  of 
five  companies.  Young  Featherston  was  elected  first  lieutenant 
of  the  company,  and  on  the  death  of  the  captain,  from  a  wound 
received  near  Cold  Harbor,  when  McClellan  was  advancing  upon 
Richmond  (1862),  he  succeeded  to  the  captaincy.  He  had  pre¬ 
viously  served  as  adjutant  of  the  regiment,  and  the  exigencies  of 
military  service,  at  different  times  during  the  war,  demanded  of 
him  temporary  service  as  staff  officer,  provost  marshal,  and,  at 
one  time,  commander  of  the  regiment,  all  senior  officers  being 
either  sick,  wounded  or  in  prison. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  9th  Alabama  Regiment  was 
a  component  part  of  Wilcox’s  Alabama  Brigade.  There  were 
few  battles  fought  by  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  throughout 
the  entire  term  of  the  war,  in  which  Wilcox’s  Alabamians  failed  to 
receive  the  honor  of  being  thrown  into  the  thick  of  the  fighting  at 
either  the  most  important  point,  or  the  most  critical  period  of  the 
conflict. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  Wilcox’s  Ala¬ 
bamians  and  Wright’s  Georgians  had  fought  their  way  up  the  steeps 
of  Round  Top  and  had  “almost  grasped  the  fiery  diadem  of  vic- 

*  A  certain  little  lady,  who  exercises  the  privilege  of  “speaking  when  she  pleases,” 
and  has  already  had  “a  say”  in  these  pages,  on  hearing  General  Sherman’s  uncouth 
reply,  wanted  to  know:  “Well,  then;  Grandfather,  if  that  was  General  Sherman’s 
kind  of  war,  what,  pray,  was  General  Sherman?” 


r 


CAPTAIN  J.  C.  FEATHERSTON  AND  LETTIE  P.  FLOYD3  67 

tory  which  trembled  upon  its  semicircle”*  when  heavy  reinforce¬ 
ments  reached  the  Federals,  and  the  two  half  exhausted  Con¬ 
federate  brigades,  unsupported  by  the  remainder  of  Anderson’s 
Division,  were  forced  to  make  a  hasty  and  somewhat  disorganized 
retreat,  in  which  they  suffered  severe  loss.  Captain  Featherston 
was  seriously  wounded  in  the  retreat  and  was  taken  from  the  field 
on  the  horse  of  a  personal  friend,  an  officer  of  the  general  staff, 
who  carried  him  to  his  own  quarters  in  rear  of  the  field  hospitals 
of  Wilcox’s  Brigade.  This  circumstance  led,  on  the  next  day, 
about  the  end  of  Pickett’s  fiercest  fighting  on  Seminary  Ridge,  to 
a  hurried  and  impromptu  interview  between  General  Lee  and  the 
wounded  officer,  which  has  already  been  described. 

There  were  very  few,  if  any,  battles  or  skirmishes  in  which 
Wilcox’s  Alabama  Brigade  was  engaged  that  did  not  find  the  young 
captain  at  the  head  of  his  company  and  ready  for  duty.  In  the 
fiercely  fought  “Battle  of  the  Crater,”  in  front  of  Petersburg, 
when  the  final  hand  to  hand  struggle  came  and  brought  complete 
victory,  he  and  the  brigade  were  in  the  thick  of  the  mixup  as  usual. 
Forty  years  later,  at  the  request  of  others  engaged  in  the  notable 
event,  he  wrote  a  graphic  and  accurate  account  of  the  struggle, 
which  is  now  a  scrap  of  accepted  history.  His  personal  friend, 
the  late  Honorable  John  W.  Daniel,  Virginia’s  able  and  eloquent 
Senator,  pronounced  it  one  of  the  most  graphic  descriptions  of  a 
fight  he  had  ever  read. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  Captain  Featherston  returned  to  his 
home  in  Alabama  to  find  nothing  there  but  the  bleak  mansion,  the 
ancient  oaks  and  the  bare  fields.  Returning  to  Virginia  he  made 
his  home  near  Lynchburg,  turned  his  attention  to  farming  and  soon 
became  a  man  of  affairs  and  a  citizen  of  consequence. 

His  worth  as  a  farmer  was  early  recognized  by  the  Virginia 
State  Grange,  and  he  was  appointed  the  general  business  agent 
of  that  State-wide  organization.  He  also  served  during  both 
of  President  Cleveland’s  administrations  as  United  States  Agri¬ 
cultural  Statistician  for  Virginia.  In  1896  he  was  elected  to  the 
Legislature  and  continued  to  represent  the  State  in  that  capacity 
for  eight  years.  Later  he  was  appointed  a  member  at  the  Virginia 
Commission  of  art  connoisseurs  to  have  executed  and  set  up  in 
Statuary  Hall  of  the  National  Capitol,  bronze  statues  of  George 
Washington  and  Robert  E.  Lee,  two  of  Virginia’s  most  highly 
honored  citizens.  This  duty  was  performed  to  the  entire  satis¬ 
faction  of  the  State. 

*  E.  A.  Pollard’s  history — The  Lost  Cause. 


68 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


Children  of  Captain  and  Mrs.  J.  C.  Featherston3 

i.  Nathaniel  Floyd  Featherston4  (Letitia  Floyd3,  Nathaniel2, 
Charles1),  born  at  Evergreen  Farm  near  Lynchburg,  Va.,  May  3, 
1867.  He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  the  county  and 
the  High  School  of  Lynchburg,  going  for  a  finishing  course  to  col¬ 
lege  at  Poughkeepsie  where  he  graduated  with  honors.  He  was 
appointed  to  a  government  position  through  the  influence  of  his 
personal  friend,  Senator  John  W.  Daniel,  of  Virginia.  Later 
he  resigned  and  engaged  in  private  business  in  Lynchburg,  Nor¬ 
folk  and  Roanoke.  In  the  latter  city  he  married,  in  December, 
1891,  Miss  Augusta  Virginia  Teaford,  daughter  of  Thomas 

J.  Teaford,  and  his  wife, - Teaford.  The  family  were 

relatives  of  the  Redds  and  Hairstons  of  Henry  County,  Va.  A 
few  years  later  Mr.  Featherston  again  entered  public  service 
through  a  civil  service  examination.  He  served  in  the  office  of 
the  Collector  of  Revenue  of  the  Sixth  Virginia  District  under 
General  Fitzhugh  Lee  and  his  successor  in  office.  His  proficiency 
in  this  position  secured  for  him  a  transfer  into  the  Treasury  Depart¬ 
ment  at  Washington  where  he  has  since  been  engaged  and  has  won 
several  promotions. 

Mr.  Featherston  possesses  remarkable  musical  talent  which,  had 
he  turned  serious  attention  to  it,  might  have  developed  into  real 
genius.  He  delights  in  “the  concord  of  sweet  sounds”  and  plays 
skillfully  upon  many  instruments.  Indeed  no  instrument  seems 
to  baffle  his  ability  to  make  it  give  forth  harmony. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  N.  F.  FEATHERSTON4 

1.  Letitia  Floyd  Featherston5,  born  March  3,  1893.  At¬ 
tending  High  School,  Washington,  D.  C. 

2.  Thomas  Howell  Featherston5,  born  August  — ,  1895, 
also  attending  the  Washington,  D.  C.,  schools. 

Children  of  Captain  and  Mrs.  J.  C.  Featherston3 
(Continued) 

2.  Howell  Colston  Featherston4,  born  April  27,  1871;  was 
educated  in  the  Grammar  and  High  Schools  of  Lynchburg,  Va., 
and  the  New  London  Academy,  finishing  at  the  University  of 
Virginia,  taking  first  an  academic  course,  and  later  the  law  course. 
He  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Lynchburg  in  1893  and  has 


CAPTAIN  J.  C.  FEATHERSTON  AND  LETTIE  P.  FLOYD3  69 

since  pursued  a  successful  course  of  practice.  In  1906  he  had 
severe  trouble  with  his  eyes,  having  suffered  from  infancy  with 
nearsightedness.  In  1907  while  under  the  care  of  the  surgeon, 
and  awaiting  a  final  operation,  he  was  elected  to  represent  Camp¬ 
bell  County  in  the  State  Legislature.  Although  a  new  member 
and  unable  to  use  his  eyes  for  close  work,  he  succeeded  in  having 
enacted  into  law  more  measures  than  any  other  individual  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  session  of  1908.  Notable  among  them  was  an  act  mak¬ 
ing  railroads  liable  for  all  damage  done  by  fires,  caused  by  their 
trains,  regardless  of  any  precaution  they  may  have  taken  to  prevent 
fires.  He  also  had  two  constitutional  amendments  twice  passed 
by  the  General  Assembly.  In  1909  he  declined  to  stand  again 
for  the  Legislature,  but  at  this  writing— 1911— he  is  a  candidate 
for  the  State  Senate.  The  Richmond  Journal  of  this  present  date, 
in  speaking  of  Mr.  Featherston’s  candidacy,  calls  attention  to  many 
wise  and  beneficial  acts  which  he  aided  in  putting  upon  the  statute 
books,  and  closes  with  the  statement  that  he  “was  the  author  of 

the  resolution  under  which  Judge - was  tried  and 

removed  from  office,  thus  safeguarding  the  immaculacy  of  four 
courts.” 

Mr.  Featherston  is  a  ready  speaker  and  writer,  and  while  in  the 
Legislature  made  a  speech,  in  opposition  to  sundry  increases  in  an 
appropriation  fund,  and  combated  them  with  a  mixture  of  ridicule 
and  sarcasm  in  a  manner  so  humorous  as  to  cause  the  matter  to 
be  practically  “laughed  out  of  Court.”  He  has  written  several 
humorous  topical  songs  which  caught  the  passing  fancy  of  the 
populace,  and  has  evinced  literary  talent  in  writing  for  the  periodi¬ 
cal  press.  One  article  in  particular,  written  for  a  Boston  law  maga¬ 
zine,  dealing  with  the  “  Origin  and  History  of  Lynch  Law”  attracted 
much  attention  in  that  section. 

On  January  14,  1909,  in  Richmond,  Va.,  he  was  united  in  marriage 
to  Miss  Virginia  Carroll  Kelly,  a  lovely  and  accomplished  daugh¬ 
ter  of  Rev.  Gilby  Campbell  Kelly,  D.D.,  and  his  wife,  Nannie 
Stitt  Kelly.  Dr.  Kelly  is  a  distinguished  and  popular  minister  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Two  children  have  been  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Featherston, 
both  of  whom  died  in  infancy. 


70 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


DESCENDANTS  OF  DR.  AND  MRS.  N.  W.  FLOYD2 
(Continued) 

John  Buchanan  Floyd3,  the  youngest  son  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  N- 
W.  Floyd,  was  born  at  the  family  home,  Brookfield  near  Lynch¬ 
burg,  Va.,  April  28, 1838.  He  was  educated  in  the  private  schools 
of  Lynchburg  and  at  the  Virginia  Military  Institute.  In  the 
latter  he  was  under  the  daily  tutelage  of  Professor  T.  J.  Jackson 
— the  immortal  “Stonewall”  Jackson. 

As  a  young  man,  just  out  of  college,  he  was  on  a  visit  to  his 
next  older  brother,  a  cotton  planter  in  North  Alabama,  when 
President  Lincoln’s  call  for  troops  to  invade  the  South  caused  Vir¬ 
ginia  to  secede  from  the  Union.  His  brother,  obtaining  from  him 
a  promise  to  remain  in  Alabama  and  attend  to  the  affairs  of  the 
plantation,  joined  other  young  men  in  reorganizing  an  old  military 
company  and  went  with  it  to  Virginia.  But  after  the  battle  of 
Manassas  and  Mr.  Lincoln’s  second  call  for  troops,  the  young 
man’s  sense  of  duty  to  his  country  overruled  his  promise  to  his 
brother  and  all  care  for  pecuniary  interests;  and  putting  the  busi¬ 
ness  and  property  of  the  plantation  into  the  hands  of  the  negro 
foreman,  he  joined  a  company  which  the  family  physician  was 
organizing,  and  was  elected  to  a  lieutenancy. 

The  company  became  a  component  part  of  the  35th  Alabama 
Infantry  which  was  soon  in  the  thick  of  the  trouble,  and  made  a 
name  for  itself  in  many  hotly  contested  skirmishes  and  battles. 
In  the  severe  struggle  at  Corinth,  Miss.,  under  General  Earl  Van 
Dorn,  the  major  of  the  35th  was  killed  and  Lieutenant  Floyd, 
whose  dash  and  gallantry  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
entire  regiment,  was  elected,  by  a  practically  unanimous  vote 
of  the  command,  to  fill  the  vacancy.  But  on  account  of  his  youth¬ 
fulness,  and  of  the  fact  that  he  would  be  “jumped”  over  the  heads 
of  many  officers  equally  as  gallant,  higher  in  military  rank  and 
about  twice  his  age,  the  War  Department  courteously  declined 
to  approve  the  battle-field  promotion  by  the  rank  and  file,  and,  in 
the  interest  of  regularity,  ordered  that  the  office  be  filled  by  the 
ranking  captain,  as  usual.  On  application,  however,  the  young 
man  was  transferred  to  the  cavalry  arm  of  the  service  and  assigned 
to  the  7th  Alabama  Cavalry,  a  part  of  General  Wheeler’s  command. 

The  next  year,  when  the  Confederacy  was  feeling  in  every  vital 
part  the  pressure  of  overwhelming  numbers  and  resources,  General 
Wheeler  was  ordered  to  the  defense  of  Atlanta,  and  a  portion  of 
his  troops,  including  the  7th  Alabama,  engaged  a  greatly  superior 


CHARLES  ANDERSON  FLOYD3 
1821-1865 

COLONEL  N.  B.  FLOYD3  CAPTAIN  N.  J.  FLOYD3 

1826— (still  living)  1828— (still  living) 

CAPTAIN  JOHN  B.  FLOYD3 
1838-1902 


CAPTAIN  JOHN  B.  FLOYD3  AND  FANNIE  M.  HARRIS 


71 


force  of  the  Federals  at  a  place  called  “Big  Shanty,”  and  after  a 
bloody  engagement  the  Confederates  were  forced  to  retire.  Cap¬ 
tain  Floyd,  in  the  last  charge,  was  shot  from  his  horse  with  his 
ankle  shattered  by  a  minnie  ball.  As  he  went  down  a  portion  of 
his  company  rallied  around  him,  and  despite  the  whistling  of  bullets 
the  bursting  of  shells  and  a  mixup  with  the  advance  wave  of  the 
Federal  countercharge,  they  succeeded  in  getting  him  upon  his 
horse  and  in  saving  him  from  capture. 

After  the  surgeons  had  done  what  they  could  for  him  (he  refused 
to  permit  them  to  amputate  his  foot,  and  in  consequence  suffered 
greatly  ever  afterward)  it  chanced  that  his  next  older  brother, 
passing  under  orders  from  Richmond  to  the  headquarters  of  the 
Trans-Mississippi  Department,  made  an  opportunity  to  delay  his 
mission  and  take  the  young  man  back  to  his  old  parents  in  Virginia. 

After  the  war  was  over,  and  the  Southern  people  had  commenced 
to  “Sit  up  and  take  notice”  of  other  matters,  he  went  to  Alabama 
to  see  what  the  cyclone  of  destruction  had  left  there.  The  negroes, 
he  knew,  had  all  returned  to  the  old  Virginia  home,  excepting  two 
young  men  supposed  to  have  been  seduced  away  or  killed  by  Fed¬ 
eral  camp-followers.  But  he  found  the  fenceless  land  and  some 
dilapidated  buildings  still  there.  He  found,  also,  that  a  dear 
little  second-degree  cousin,  whom  he  had  left  a  blushing  school¬ 
girl,  had  grown  into  lovely  womanhood;  and  soon  another  wound, 
from  which  he  was  destined  never  to  recover,  was  caused  by  the 
apparently  harmless  glances  of  her  beautiful  grey-blue  eyes. 

At  the  handsome  and  hospitable  home  of  Major  John  R.  Harris, 
a  prominent  and  popular  resident  and  planter  of  Limestone  County, 
Alabama,  on  December  4,  1867,  his  only  daughter,  Frances 

Maria  Harris,  was  united  in  marriage  to  Captain  John  B.  Floyd, 
of  Virginia.  On  the  maternal  side  of  their  houses  the  young  people 
were  both  descendants  of  Orlando  Jones  (1687-1719),  a  celebrated 
Colonial  Virginia  lawyer,  son  of  Rev.  Roland  Jones  (1640-1688) 
of  Oxfordshire,  England,  who  was  the  distinguished  first  rector  of 
Bruton  Parish  Church  at  Williamsburg,  the  early  colonial  capital 
of  Virginia. 

Many  prominent  people  in  Virginia,  and  other  parts  of  the  South, 
are  descended  from  the  two  granddaughters  of  Orlando  Jones. 
The  eldest,  Martha  Dandridge,  who  married,  first  Colonel  Custis, 
and  then  George  Washington,  was  the  great-grandmother  of  the 
children  of  Robert  E.  Lee;  and  the  other,  Frances  Barbour  Jones, 
who  married  a  gentleman  of  her  own  name  (but  not  a  kinsman) 
Captain  John  Jones,  a  gallant  officer  in  the  Light  Brigade  of  Harry 


72 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


Lee — the  father  of  Robert  E.  Lee — was  the  great-grandmother 
of  the  two  young  people  (Frances  Maria  Harris  and  John  B.  Floyd) 
who  plighted  their  troth  on  that  bright  December  evening. 

The  young  people  made  their  home  in  North  Alabama,  and 
Captain  Floyd  became  one  of  its  prominent  and  popular  citizens. 
They  reared  a  large  family  of  children  who,  as  they  grow  up,  are 
worthily  fdling  the  place,  in  the  social  and  business  life  of  the  sec¬ 
tion,  formerly  occupied  by  their  honored  parents  and  predecessors. 

The  children  of  Captain  and  Mrs.  John  B.  Floyd  are: 

1.  Elizabeth  Harris  Floyd4  who  married  Edward  Fletcher, 
son  of  Dr.  Richard  Fletcher  and  his  wife,  Miss  Rebecca  Mason, 
of  Madison,  Ala.,  on  December  7,  1899.  Mrs.  Fletcher  died  a 
few  years  after  her  marriage,  leaving  an  only  son  who  was  adopted 
by  his  grandfather,  Dr.  Fletcher. 

2.  Annie  West  Floyd4  who  married  William  Harvey  Gilles¬ 
pie,  son  of  Mr.  Milton  Gillespie  and  his  wife,  Miss  Lorenda  Clark, 
of  Tennessee,  January  24,  1900. 

3.  Schuyler  Harris  Floyd4  who  married  “Mittie”  Sherrod, 
daughter  of  Mr.  Frederick  Sherrod  and  his  wife,  Miss  Mittie 
Davis,  Birmingham,  Ala.,  March  17,  1900. 

4.  Ellen  Stith  Floyd4  who  married  John  Hurtzler,  son  of  Dr. 
John  Hurtzler  and  his  wife,  Miss  Annie  Garber,  of  Pennsylvania, 
February  18,  1902. 

5.  Ida  Isabel  Floyd4  who  married  Thomas  H.  Hopkins,  son 
of  Mr.  Frank  Hopkins  and  his  wife,  Miss  Mary  Harris,  a  descend¬ 
ant  of  the  Bibbs,  (Governors  of  Alabama)  December  4,  1907. 

6.  John  Buchanan  Floyd,  Jr.4,  who  married  Hibernia  Wise, 
daughter  of  Mr.  Arthur  Wise,  of  Virginia,  and  his  wife,  Miss  Lucie 
Harris,  of  Alabama — both  of  prominent  families,  December  7, 
1909. 

7.  Florence  Lee  Floyd4.  Unmarried. 

8.  Charles  Perkins  Floyd4.  Unmarried. 

9.  Nicholas  Nathaniel  Floyd4.  Unmarried. 

Captain  Floyd  was  a  man  of  many  noble  qualities  and  impulses. 
Kind  and  generous  to  a  fault,  he  was  not  the  kind  of  person,  who, 
with  a  young  and  increasing  family,  could  accumulate  property 
during  the  period  immediately  succeeding  the  War  between  the 
States,  when  more  than  90  per  cent  of  the  people  in  the  South  were 
virtually  bankrupt,  and  most  of  them  were  old  Confederate  sol¬ 
diers  with  needy  families.  He  and  his  noble  wife  made  a  happy 
home  for  their  numerous  children,  and  bestowed  upon  them  every 
good  gift  within  the  bounds  of  their  ability.  They  are  now  rest- 


COLONEL  JOHN  FLOYD  AND  SALLIE  BUCHANAN 


73 


ing  from  their  labors,  and  their  children  are  gratefully  benefiting 
from  the  wise  and  judicious  discharge  of  their  parental  duties. 

Captain  Floyd  died  at  his  home  in  Madison,  Ala.,  of  heart  fail¬ 
ure,  on  Aug.  18,  1902,  and  his  devoted  wife  tarried  only  seven 
years  longer.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  they  have  other  grand¬ 
children  besides  the  one  alluded  to.  The  writer  was  unsuccessful 
in  getting  information  regarding  family  details. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  COL.  JOHN  FLOYD1  AND  HIS 
WIFE  SALLIE  BUCHANAN 

In  the  beginning  of  these  sketches  the  biographies  of  the  brothers 
John  and  Charles  Floyd  necessarily  ran  together;  but,  after  the 
death  of  John,  in  the  full  vigor  of  his  splendid  young  manhood, 
in  1783,  it  became  necessary,  in  order  to  avoid,  as  far  as  possible, 
an  awkward  break  in  the  sequence  of  the  narrative,  to  continue 
the  sketch  of  Charles  and  his  descendants  to  the  end.  Otherwise 
the  precedence  would,  as  a  matter  of  course,  have  been  given  to 
John,  the  eldest  brother  and  the  acknowledged  head  of  the  family. 

As  has  been  previously  stated,  John  married  when  very  young 
the  very  young  daughter  of  the  Burford  family  of  Henrico  County, 
Virginia.  She  died  about  a  year  later,  leaving  an  infant  daughter 
which  the  maternal  grandmother  adopted.  The  young  lady  was 
well  educated,  for  the  period,  and,  after  the  death  of  her  grand¬ 
mother  in  Virginia,  she  went  to  reside  with  her  widowed  stepmother 
in  Kentucky.  There  she  met  and  married  General  Charles  Stew¬ 
art  of  Georgia,  a  nephew  of  Mary  Stewart,  wife  of  her  uncle  Charles 
Floyd1. 

It  is  not  known  to  the  Virginia  family  how  many  children  she 
had,  but  her  eldest  son,  Lorenzo  R.  Stewart,  on  a  visit  to  his  double 
cousin  in  Virginia,  Dr.  Nathaniel  W.  Floyd2,  son  of  Charles1, 
met  and  married  Miss  Sarah  Anderson,  a  younger  sister  of  Dr. 
Floyd’s  wife.  The  young  couple  made  their  home  in  Yalobusha 
County,  Mississippi,  and  Mr.  Stewart  represented  his  county 
many  years  in  the  State  Legislature.  He  also  served  as  High 
Sheriff  for  a  number  of  years,  and  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  over 
ten  thousand  dollars  by  the  malfeasance  of  one  of  his  deputies. 

Children  of  Lorenzo  R.  Stewart3  and  his  Wife  Sarah 

Anderson 

1.  John  Floyd  Stewart4.  Born  1842.  A  youth  of  much 
promise — died  in  early  manhood. 


74 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


2.  Marcella  Georgiana  Stewart4.  Born  1845.  Married  a 
distant  cousin,  Francis  Marion  Tuley4,  a  great  grandson  of  Eliza¬ 
beth  Floyd1,  who  in  1767  married  Charles  Tuley  of  Fauquier 
County,  Virginia,  and  in  1783  removed  with  husband  and  children 
to  the  Floyd  settlement  in  Kentucky.  These  representatives  of 
the  fourth  generation — Floyd,  Tuley,  Stewart — had  four  children, 
two  of  whom  married  but  left  no  living  children. 

3.  Sarah  Anderson  Stewart.  Died  in  early  girlhood. 

4.  Annie  Pauline  Stewart4.  Born  1851.  Died  unmarried. 

5.  L.  Eugene  Stewart4.  Born  1854.  In  1879  he  visited 
his  Floyd  and  Anderson  relations  in  Virginia  with  his  sister  Paul¬ 
ine.  He,  too,  has  since  died,  unmarried. 

General  Charles  Stewart  and  his  wife,  Mourning  Floyd2,  had 
other  children  but  the  writer  has  been  able  to  learn  very  little 
about  them.  He  recollects  that  when  a  youth  at  college  his  father 
had  a  visit  of  several  weeks  from  a  young  kinsman  by  the  name  of 
Jacob  Phinizy,  an  entertaining  and  accomplished  young  man  from 
Georgia,  whose  father,  Colonel  Phinizy,  of  a  prominent  family 
in  that  State,  had  married  a  daughter  of  Mourning  Floyd  Stew¬ 
art.  And  from  Mrs.  Nettie  Neal  Maybank  of  Aniston,  Alabama, 
a  granddaughter  of  Judge  John  Julius  Floyd  of  Covington,  Georgia, 
he  has  recently  learned  that  Mourning  Floyd  had  a  son,  Floyd 
Stewart,  who  married  a  Miss  Daniel  of  Athens,  Georgia.  He 
also  has  information  from  other  sources  that  “  Colonel  Stewart, 
who  fought  in  the  Confederate  army,”  was  a  grandson  of  General 
Stewart  and  Mourning  Floyd.  Also  that  Mrs.  Henry  Preston 
of  Abingdon,  Virginia,  is  a  great-granddaughter  of  theirs. 

One  stumbling  block  to  the  patient  investigator  is  that  some  of 
the  branches  are  said  to  have  changed  the  spelling  of  the  name  to 
“Stuart.”  If  this  be  a  fact  the  offenders  are  guilty  of  lese  majeste 
to  the  proudest  blood  in  their  veins.  Beyond  a  reasonable  doubt 
the  first  Colonel  John  Stewart  who  came  to  Virginia  from  Scot¬ 
land, — Mourning  Floyd’s  husband’s  great-grandfather — was  a 
younger  son  of  the  Duke  of  Berwick,  born  in  Berwick  Castle,  and 
cousin  of  Henry  Stewart,  Earl  of  Lennox,  whose  son,  Henry  Stew¬ 
art2,  married  his  cousin,  Mary  Stewart,  Queen  of  Scots.  They 
were  all  reared  in  Berwickshire  and  were  all  descendants  of  Walter 
(Fitzalan)  Stewart,  the  sixth  “Grand  Steward  of  Scotland.”  (The 
office  of  Steward  of  Scotland  was  hereditary  in  a  branch  of  the  Fitz¬ 
alan  Scottish  Clan,  which,  after  a  time,  took  the  name  of  the  office 
— changing  the  final  “d”  to  a  “t” — as  their  patronym: — Stewart.) 
Walter,  the  sixth  Grand  Steward,  distinguished  himself  greatly 


GOVERNOR  JOHN  FLOYD2  AND  LETITIA  PRESTON 


75 


in  war,  as  a  lieutenant  of  Robert  Bruce,  and  in  consequence  Bruce 
gave  him  his  daughter  Marjory,  in  marriage.  Her  descendants 
untimately  brought  the  crown  of  Scotland  into  the  Stewart  family. 
The  English  and  French  Stuarts  are  of  a  highly  distinguished 
collateral  branch  of  the  family,  but  they  have  not  the  blood  of 
“Robert  the  Bruce”  in  their  veins. 

Colonel  John1  Floyd  and  his  second  wife,  Jane  Buchanan,  had 
three  children: 

1.  William  Preston  Floyd2.  Born  in  Virginia,  1779.  He  was 
delicate  and  died  before  attaining  his  majority. 

2.  George  Rogers  Clark  Floyd2.  Born  in  Kentucky,  1781, 

and  received  a  good  education.  In  1805  he  married  Miss  Maupin, 
daughter  of  former  Governor  Gabriel  Maupin  of  Williamsburg, 
Virginia.  In  1807  his  wife  died  after  a  brief  illness  and  he  sought 
a  commission  in  the  United  States  army.  He  was  promoted  sev¬ 
eral  times,  and,  with  the  rank  of  colonel,  he  commanded  a  regiment 
of  regulars  under  General  Harrison  in  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe. 
The  beginning  of  the  battle  was  a  treacherous  mid-night  attack 
by  the  Indians,  after  an  amicable  and  reassuring  “powwow”  and 
smoke  with  the  white  officers  on  the  previous  evening;  and  the 
camp  was  quietly  dozing,  like  Halleck’s  immortalized  Turk,  under 
somewhat  similar  circumstances.  But  the  sound  of  the  war- 
whoop,  almost  at  the  door  of  his  tent,  caused  Colonel  Floyd  to 
spring  out  of  his  bunk  and  into  the  fight,  sword  in  hand,  without 
stopping  to  dress  for  the  occasion.  The  Indians  were  routed,  and 
for  many  succeeding  years  the  Kentuckians  had  a  saying  that  “  Col¬ 
onel  Floyd  fought  like  Caesar  in  his - (backwoods 

lingo  for  en  dishabille )  and  clothed  himself  with  victory.” 

Colonel  Floyd  married  the  second  time  Miss  Sallie  Fountain 
(Anglicized  from  “Fontane”)  of  an  old  and  prominent  family  of 
Louisville.  A  son  of  his,  John  G.  Floyd3,  graduated  at  West 
Point  and  served  with  distinction  in  the  Corps  of  Engineers, 
U.  S.  A.  He  also  had  a  daughter,  Jane  Buchanan  Floyd3,  who 

married  Mr. - Penn  of  Virginia.  The  young  couple  made 

their  home  in  Dubuque,  Iowa,  the  home  of  the  bride’s  father. 
In  1849  they  visited  Virginia  and  spent  part  of  the  summer  at 
the  Brookfield  home  of  the  Floyds  near  Lynchburg.  They  had 
two  small  children  both  named  for  the  Floyds. 

3.  John  Floyd2.  Born  at  Floyd  Station,  Kentucky,  April  24, 
1783,  two  weeks  after  the  murder  of  his  father.  He  acquired  the 
substantial  rudiments  of  an  education  in  the  logschoolhouse  of  the 
neighborhood  and  was  sent  to  Dickinson  College,  Pennsylvania,  at 


76 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


which  he  graduated.  He  then  studied  under  Dr.  Rush  of  Phil¬ 
adelphia  (for  whom  he  afterward  named  a  son)  and  graduated  in 
medicine  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  1806.  Returning 
from  college,  he  married  in  Virginia,  the  same  year,  his  cousin 
Letitia  Preston,  “one  Sunday  afternoon;  both  being  dressed  in 
black  satin,”  according  to  family  tradition. 

Returning  to  reside  in  the  home  State  of  his  ancestors  the  young 
couple  made  their  home  in  Pulaski  County  on  a  beautiful  estate 
known — or  named  by  them — Thorn  Spring.  Here  Dr.  Floyd 
soon  won  distinction  in  his  profession  to  such  an  extent  that  within 
five  years  his  home  and  all  suitable  buildings  on  the  plantation  were 
converted  into  an  impromptu  sanitarium  to  meet  the  require¬ 
ments  of  patients  from  a  distance,  who  needed  and  demanded  pro¬ 
tracted  medical  or  surgical  treatment.  And  here  one  of  the  two 
youngest  sons  of  his  Uncle  Charles’  numerous  family  (Nathaniel, 
ten  years  his  junior),  joined  him  to  read  medicine  and  assist  in 
the  dispensary  of  the  sanitarium. 

When  the  second  war  with  England  commenced  Dr.  Floyd  felt 
impelled  by  a  sense  of  patriotic  duty  to  his  country  and  his  coun¬ 
trymen,  to  give  his  services  to  the  soldiers  in  the  field,  and  accepted 
service  on  the  medical  staff  of  the  army.  After  the  war  the 
Jeffersonian  Democrats,  of  whom  he  was  the  leader  in  his  section, 
demanded  his  services  in  the  State  Legislature,  and  he  agreed  to 
serve  them  one  term.  Before  the  term  expired,  however,  they 
elected  him  to  Congress,  where  successive  elections  kept  him  until 
he  was  elected  Governor  of  the  State  in  1830.  , 

During  his  term  in  Congress  his  brilliant  speeches  on  the  North¬ 
west  Boundary  question  aroused  the  entire  country,  the  North 
as  well  as  the  South,  to  the  importance  of  taking  some  decisive 
action  looking  to  the  safeguarding  of  our  territorial  rights  in  that 
distant  region.  And  it  is  to  his  untiring  efforts,  largely  if  not  chiefly, 
and  to  the  tenacious  and  comprehensive  grasp  of  his  mind  upon 
the  subtle  intricacies  of  the  subject,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the 
fact  that  the  American  flag  floats  over  every  foot  of  the  “Oregon 
Territory,”  now  divided  into  sovereign  and  indestructible  States 
— copartners  in  a  glorious  and  indissoluble  Union,  as  a  Fourth 
of  July  orator  might  phrase  it. 

During  Mr.  Floyd’s  incumbency  as  Governor  of  Virginia  the 
trouble  growing  out  of  South  Carolina’s  nullification  of  an  unfair 
tariff  act  of  the  Congress,  caused  President  Jackson  to  make  a 
tentative  threat  of  coercion  of  that  State  by  military  force.  This 
was  so  violative  of  Governor  Floyd’s  idea  of  State  sovereignty  and 


GOVERNOR  JOHN  FLOYD2  AND  LETITIA  PRESTON 


77 


political  comity,  that  he  sternly  gave  the  President,  his  personal 
friend,  to  understand  that  no  armed  Federal  soldier  would  be  per¬ 
mitted  to  encroach  upon  the  territory  of  Virginia  with  hostile 
intent  upon  a  sister  State.  It  is,  perhaps,  owing  to  this  fact  that 
in  1832,  when  Mr.  Jackson  was  standing  for  a  second  term,  South 
Carolina  refused  to  back  him  with  her  former  heartiness,  and  gave 
a  presidential  electoral  vote  to  John  Floyd  of  Virginia. 

Children  of  Governor  John  Floyd2  and  his  Wife 
Letitia  Preston 

1.  Susan.  Died  in  infancy. 

2.  John  Buchanan  Floyd3.  Married  his  cousin  Sally  Preston, 
daughter  of  General  Francis  Preston  of  Abingdon,  Virginia,  and 
sister  of  the  eloquent  and  distinguished  statesman  Willian  C.  Preston 
of  South  Carolina.  They  had  no  children.  See  special  mention. 

3.  George.  Died  in  infancy. 

4.  George  Rogers  Clark  Floyd.3  Married  and  reared  a 
family  in  the  mountain  regions  of  Virginia — now  West  Virginia. 
The  children  of  the  family  have  scattered  and  no  records  could  be 
obtained  of  them. 

5.  William  Floyd.3  After  graduating  in  medicine  settled  and 
practiced  his  profession  in  the  rarified  mountain  atmosphere  of  West 
Virginia — then  a  part  of  the  State  of  Virginia.  He  married  a  Miss 
Patton  who  bore  him  a  son,  and  perhaps  other  children.  Patton 
Floyd4  his  son,  also  graduated  in  medicine  at  the  University  of 
Virginia.  He  married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  James  Witten  of  Tazewell, 
Virginia,  and  but  for  his  early  death  would  undoubtedly  have  made 
a  name  for  himself  in  his  profession.  He  left  a  son,  also  named 
Patton,  who  resides  in  Tazewell. 

6.  Benjamin  Rush  Floyd3  Graduated  in  law  and  located  at 
Wytherville,  Virginia.  He  won  distinction  in  his  profession  and 
married  Miss  Nancy  Mathews  of  a  good  old  family  of  the  county. 
The  people  of  the  Wytheville  Congressional  district  sent  him 
to  represent  them  at  Washington.  He  was  a  zealous  worker  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  and  was  regarded  as  a  superior 
constitutional  lawyer.  His  ability  and  faithfulness  to  the  best 
interest  of  his  constituents  were  rewarded  by  successive  elections. 


78 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


Children  of  Hon.  B.  Rush  Floyd3  and  his  Wife 
Nancy  Mathews 

a.  Malvina  Floyd4  (abbreviated  to  “Mallie”).  Married 
Peter  J.  Otey  of  an  old  and  honored  Lynchburg  family.  He  went 
into  the  war  between  the  States  as  a  member  of  General  John  B. 
Floyd’s  staff  and  achieved  the  rank  of  Major  as  Assistant  Adju¬ 
tant-General  of  Floyd’s  Division  at  Fort  Donelson.  After  the 
war  he  engaged  in  the  banking  business  at  Lynchburg  until  the 
people  of  that  congressional  district  called  on  him  to  represent 
them  at  Washington.  He  was  an  indefatigable  worker  and  fathered 
a  number  of  bills  that  were  of  benefit  to  his  people  and  to  the  coun¬ 
try  generally. 

b.  John  Floyd4.  Named  for  his  grandfather,  the  first  Gov¬ 
ernor  Floyd.  Married  Annie  West  Adams  of  Campbell  County, 
Virginia — has  already  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  fam¬ 
ily  of  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  related. 

c.  Benjamin  Rush  Floyd  Jr.4.  A  young  man  of  unusual 
ability.  He  made  a  splendid  record  at  school  and  college,  but 
died  before  assuming  the  duties  of  life. 

Children  of  Hon.  P.  J.  Otey  and  his  Wife  Mallie  Floyd4 

aai.  Mary  Otey5.  Married  Mr. - Mitchell  of  Rich¬ 

mond,  Virginia.  They  settled  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  where  Mr. 
Mitchell  became  a  prominent  railroad  man.  They  have  one  son 
named  Peter  Otey  Mitchell.8 

aa2.  Nannie  Otey5.  Married  Mr.  John  Miller  of  Lynchburg. 
They  reside  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  where  Mr.  Miller  has  made  a 
fine  reputation  as  a  banker.  They  have  a  large  family  of  bright 
children  growing  up  around  them. 

aa3.  John  Floyd  Otey5.  Died  in  early  boyhood. 

d.  Nathalie  Otey5.  Married  Mr.  Lynch  Ward,  a  great- 
grandson  of  “Judge”  Lynch,  of  Lynch-law  fame.  They  reside 
on  a  portion  of  the  old  Lynch  estate  and  have  several  interesting 
children. 

Children  of  Governor  John  Floyd2  (Continued) 

7.  Letitia  Preston  Floyd3.  Married  her  first  cousin, 
Colonel  William  Lewis  of  South  Carolina  and  Sweet  Springs, 
Virginia,  a  descendant  of  General  Andrew  Lewis  of  Point  Pleas¬ 
ant  fame.  Their  children  were: 


GOVERNOR  JOHN  FLOYD2  AND  LETITIA  PRESTON 


79 


a.  Susan  Massie  Lewis4.  Married  Mr.  Alfred  Frederick  of 
South  Carolina.  They  have  a  family  of  several  children. 

b.  Letitia  Lewis4.  Married  Mr. - Osborne,  a  prom¬ 

inent  lawyer  of  Union,  West  Virginia.  They  have  a  family  of 
small  children. 

c.  William  Lynn  Lewis4.  Married  Miss  Florence  Dooley 
of  Richmond,  Virginia.  They  own  and  reside  in  the  handsome 
old  Sweet  Springs  Mansion,  and  have  several  interesting  daughters. 

d.  Floyd  Lewis4.  Married  Miss  Emma  Hawthorne  of  Ken¬ 
tucky.  They  have  a  large  family. 

e.  Charles  Patton  Lewis4.  Unmarried. 

Children  of  Governor  John  Floyd2  (Continued) 

8.  Lavalette  Floyd3.  Married  Prof.  George  Frederick 
Holmes  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  Their  children  are: 

a.  Isabel  Holmes4.  Married  Prof.  Howard  Perkinson,  chair 
of  Gothic  Languages,  University  of  Virginia.  They  have  a  daugh¬ 
ter,  Isabel,  educated  at  Notre  Dame,  Baltimore^  now  studying 
abroad. 

b.  Letty  Preston  Holmes4.  Unmarried. 

c.  Henry  H.  Holmes4.  Graduated  in  medicine  at  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Virginia.  Married  Miss  Annie  Bourne  of  Portsmouth, 
Virginia.  Their  children  are:  Henry  H.,  Jr., in  business  in  Atlanta, 
Georgia;  Lavalette  and  Isabel,  residing  in  Chicago.  The  former 
married  Mr.  Cronstardt — N.  Floyd  Holmes4,  in  business  in  Wash¬ 
ington,  D.  C. 

d.  Geo.  Frederick  Holmes,  Jr4.  Has  recently  married 
a  lady  of  Norfolk. 

Children  of  Governor  John  Floyd2  (Continued) 

9.  Nicketti  Buchanan  Floyd3.  Married  John  Warfield 
Johnston,  eldest  son  of  the  noted  physician  Dr.  J.  W.  Johnston 
of  Washington  County,  Virginia,  and  grandson  of  Judge  Peter 
Johnston  who,  during  the  Revolution,  was  a  lieutenant  in  the 
Brigade  of  “Light  Horse  Harry”  Lee,  father  of  R.  E.  Lee,  the 
great  Confederate  Commander. 

Mr.  Johnston  commenced  professional  life  as  a  Common¬ 
wealth’s  Attorney,  but  was  soon  sent  by  the  people  of  Tazewell 
County  to  represent  them  in  the  State  Senate.  In  1869  he  became 
Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Washington  County  circuit,  but 


8o 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


was  soon  called  to  serve  his  people  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  He  achieved  distinction  in  the  Senate  and,  by  successive 
elections,  was  kept  in  that  service  until  a  short  time  before  his 
death,  in  1890. 

Children  of  Senator  Johnston  and  his  Wife 
Nicketti  Floyd3 

a.  John  Warfield  Johnston4.  Died  in  infancy. 

b.  Laetitia  Floyd  Johnston4.  Died  young — unmarried. 

c.  Louise  Bowen  Johnston4.  Married  Daniel  Trigg  of 
Washington  County,  Virginia;  an  officer  of  the  Navy  of  the  Con¬ 
federate  States,  in  which  he  served  with  gallantry  and  distinc¬ 
tion.  Their  children  are: 

cci.  Nannie  Greenway  Trigg5,  who  married  Franklin  Bache, 
a  direct  descendant  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  They  have  five  chil¬ 
dren:  Franklin;  Daniel;  Charles;  Louisa  and  Henrietta. 

cc2.  John  W.  Johnston  Trigg8.  Married  Miss  Annie  Dunn 
of  McAlister,  Indian  Territory.  No  children. 

CC3.  Daniel  Trigg6.  Married  Miss  Helen  Hancock  Dillinger. 
No  children.  Dr.  Trigg  is  a  practicing  physician  of  Johnson  City, 
Tennessee. 

CC4.  Evelyn  Byrd  Trigg5.  Married  Mr.  George  Sargent  of 
Norfolk,  Virginia.  They  have  two  children:  Daniel  and  Elizabeth. 

CC5.  George  Ben  Trigg5.  Has  recently  (1911)  married  Miss 
Fidelis  McKennon  of  Mobile,  Alabama.  The  young  couple  have 
made  their  home  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri.  It  is  to  this  young 
gentleman’s  rummaging  among  the  old  papers  of  his  great-grand¬ 
father,  the  first  Governor  Floyd  of  Virginia,  that  the  writer  is 
indebted  for  the  pen  and  ink  likeness  of  his  own  grandfather, 
Charles  Floyd1  (1753-1828),  which  is  reproduced  elsewhere,  and 
which  the  young  man,  when  quite  a  youth,  resurrected  among  the 
forgotten  treasure  of  a  long  departed  generation. 

d.  Sally  Johnston4.  Married  Captain  Henry  Carter  Lee, 
son  of  Captain  Sidney  Smith  Lee,  C.  S.  N.,  and  brother  of  General 
Fitzhugh  Lee.  They  have  three  living  children: 

ddi.  Sidney  Smith  Lee5.  Unmarried. 

dd2.  William  Floyd  Lee.6  An  acccomplished  engineer.  Un¬ 
married. 

dd3-  Ann  Mason  Lee5.  Unmarried. 

e.  Lavalette  Johnston4.  Married  John  F.  McMullen  of 
Baltimore  and  Ellicott  City,  Md.,  son  of  John  McMullen,  one  of 


MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  BUCHANAN  FLOYD3  8 1 

the  most  distinguished  scientists  and  inventors  of  the  early  years 
of  the  past  century.  They  have  three  sons  and  four  daughters, 
all  unmarried:  John  Francis;  Joseph  and  Dysart  McMullen5, 
Mary  Floyd,  Lettie  Johnston;  Nicketti  and  Lavalette  Elizabeth 
McMullen5. 

They  are  all  well  educated,  bright  and  talented.  It  is  believed 
by  many  that  had  the  eldest  daughter,  Mary  Floyd  McMullen5, 
devoted  her  time  and  talents  to  literatery  work,  she  might  have 
been  a  sister  in  literature  to  her  cousin  by  consanguinity,  the 
talented  author  of  “To  Have  and  to  Hold,”  and  other  successful 
romances  dealing  with  historical  periods  and  events. 

f.  Dr.  George  Ben  Johnston4.  Graduated  in  medicine  at 
the  University  of  Virginia,  and  took  a  post-graduate  course  at 
the  New  York  Medical  College.  He  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  surgeons  of  the  present  day  and  has  been  president, 
at  various  times,  of  every  surgical  association  in  the  South.  He 
has  been  president  of  The  American  Surgical  Association,  which 
is  the  highest  honor  that  can  be  conferred  upon  a  surgeon  in  this 
country;  and  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  building  and  establish¬ 
ing  the  Memorial  Hospital  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  of  which  he 
is  Surgeon-in-Chief.  He  is  also  associated  with  Dr.  A.  W.  Willis 
in  the  Johnston-Willis  Hospital  in  Richmond  and  Abingdon,  Vir¬ 
ginia.  He  is  a  Fellow  of  many  foreign  societies  and  an  LL.D. 
of  St.  Francis  Xavier  College  of  New  York. 

Dr.  Johnston  married  first  Miss  Mary  McClung  of  Abingdon. 
They  had  no  children.  By  the  second  marriage  with  Helen  Ruth¬ 
erford,  daughter  of  former  Governor  John  Rutherford  of  Virginia, 
there  are  four  children:  Ann  Roy;  Nicketti;  Hellen  and  Susan 
Johnston.5 

g.  Joseph  Beverly  Johnston.4  Unmarried. 

h.  Corolie  Henry  Johnston.4  Unmarried. 

SPECIAL  MENTION 

John  Buchanan  Floyd3  was  born  at  Blacksburg,  Virginia, 
June  i,  1807,  and  educated  at  Columbia,  South  Carolina.  He 
commenced  the  practice  of  law  at  Wytheville,  Virginia,  but  was 
soon  caught  in  the  “Arkansas  cotton  boom”  in  which  he  lost  his 
robust  health  from  miasmatic  causes,  and  his  ample  fortune  on 
account  of  the  remarkable  financial  panic  which  succeeded  the 
boom.  He  returned  to  Virginia  and  recuperated  his  health  at 
the  home  of  his  mother,  in  Burk’s  Garden,  Tazewell  County,  a 


82 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


healthful  and  beautiful  plateau  of  some  sixty  square  miles  inclosed 
by  a  circuit  of  mountains  without  a  break  excepting  the  pass 
through  which  the  water  of  the  region  finds  exit  to  the  watershed 
outside. 

After  regaining  his  health  he  commenced  the  practice  of  law 
anew  at  Abingdon,  Virginia,  and  was  remarkably  successful. 
The  panic  left  him  owing  over  $30,000  of  security  debts;  and 
though,  after  surrendering  all  his  property,  the  law  released  him 
from  further  obligation,  he  accepted  the  benefit  of  the  law  only  as 
a  temporary  protection;  and  in  1848,  the  writer,  then  a  student  at 
the  Abingdon  Academy,  assisted  him  in  making  out  a  schedule  of 
the  security  debts  paid  and  unpaid.  He  had  paid  every  dollar 
with  the  exception  of  about  $1200  which  he  paid  within  the  year. 
During  all  these  years  he  had  lived,  and  was  still  living,  in  a  modest 
cottage  on  the  main  street  of  the  town. 

In  that  year  he  slackened  his  strenuous  pursuit  of  the  law  and 
agreed  to  represent  his  people  in  the  State  Legislature.  Before 
his  term  had  expired  he  was  elected  Governor  of  the  State.  Dur¬ 
ing  his  term  as  Governor  the  magnificent  Washington  Monu¬ 
ment  in  the  Capitol  Square  was  erected  by  the  celebrated  Ameri¬ 
can  sculptor,  Thomas  Crawford.  Governor  Floyd  took  great 
interest  in  the  work  and  personally  looked  after  many  of  its  nicer 
details. 

After  the  expiration  of  his  term,  Mr.  Floyd  had  hardly  picked 
up  all  the  threads  of  his  abandoned  law  practice  before  the  insid¬ 
ious  and  dangerous  doctrines  of  the  Know-Nothing  party  com¬ 
menced  to  disquiet  the  country.  It  was  slowly  absorbing  the  old 
Whig  party,  to  which  it  offered  “a  house  of  refuge,”  and  even  level¬ 
headed  Democrats  seemed  somewhat  attracted  by  its  mysteries  and 
novelties.  In  1855  the  outlook  was  that  it  would  sweep  the  coun¬ 
try  unless  the  conservative  South  could  check  its  wild  career  and 
deliver  a  knockout  blow.  In  the  general  State  elections  of  that 
year  Mr.  Floyd  put  aside  his  professional  duties  to  perform  what 
he  considered  the  highest  duty  of  a  citizen.  It  was  Virginia’s 
fate  to  be  the  first  to  fight  the  dangerous  doctrine  in  a  State-wide 
election;  and  it  devolved  upon  her  to  arouse  the  entire  country 
to  a  realizing  sense  of  the  danger  to  the  peace  of  the  people  and  to 
the  very  existence  of  civil  liberty.  That  campaign  will  ever  be 
memorable  in  Virginia.  The  excitement  was  almost  as  great  as 
that  which  ensued,  later,  when  Virginia  elected  to  secede  from  the 
Union  rather  than  countenance  the  coercion  of  sister  States. 

Mr.  Floyd’s  appeals  to  the  conservative  and  patriotic  sense  of 


MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  BUCHANAN  FLOYD3  83 

the  descendants  of  the  Revolutionary  fathers  were  heard  in  every 
portion  of  the  State.  Other  able  and  eloquent  statesmen  joined 
in  and  Know-Nothingism  in  Virginia  was  “buried  alive.”  It 
continued  to  show  its  hydra  head,  however,  at  the  North,  waiting 
to  be  killed  “for  good”  in  the  presidential  election  of  the  next 
year,  when  Mr.  Buchanan  was  nominated  for  the  presidency  by 
the  Democrats.  Mr.  Floyd  having  won  many  of  the  Virginia 
Whigs  from  their  new  and  unattractive  idol,  took  an  active  part 
in  the  national  campaign,  and  made  a  key-note  speech  in  Wall 
Street,  New  York,  from  a  platform  erected  for  the  purpose,  which 
was  reported  in  full  and  published  by  every  Democratic  and  Anti- 
Know-Nothing  paper  of  any  consequence  in  the  country. 

Mr.  Buchanan  was  elected  and  Mr.  Floyd  was  appointed  Secre¬ 
tary  of  War.  The  administration  was  comparatively  uneventful. 
All  other  political  parties  had  died  of  inanity,  and  the  Democratic 
party,  having  no  wily  foe  to  watch,  seemed  to  be  passing  into  a 
somnolent  state.  Many  seemed  to  think  “The  Era”  had  come, 
and  the  lion  and  lamb  were  about  to  lie  down  together.  None 
seemed  to  suspect  that  a  new  party  was  en  limine  with  a  bomb 
destined  to  be  exploded  and  to  scatter  death  and  destruction 
throughout  all  the  land.  In  this  “Peace  on  earth”  atmosphere 
an  incident  occurred  which  had  no  significance  in  itself,  but  which 
was  productive  of  very  grave  future  consequences. 

During  the  second  year  of  the  administration,  Quartermaster- 
General  Gaines  died,  and  three  colonels  in  the  army  were  brought 
forward  from  whom  to  select  his  successor:  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
Robert  E.  Lee  and  Albert  Sidney  Johnston.  It  was  said 
Colonel  Lee  did  not  desire  the  position.  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis, 
then  a  Senator  from  Mississippi,  had  previously  been  Secretary 
of  War,  and  naturally  took  more  than  ordinary  interest  in  mili¬ 
tary  affairs.  He  became  a  very  earnest  advocate  of  Colonel 
Albert  Sidney  Johnston’s  appointment;  so  earnest  indeed  that 
when  Colonel  Joseph  E.  Johnston  was  appointed  he  broke  off  all 
cordial  relations  with  Secretary  Floyd.  They  were  cousins  in 
the  fourth  degree  of  descent  from  an  ancestress  who  was  of  one- 
fourth  noted  Indian  blood,  and  they  may  have  had  some  char¬ 
acteristics  in  common — unyielding  tenacity  of  purpose  being, 
perhaps,  one  of  them.  A  literary  writer  of  that  period  says: 
“Such  was  the  temperament  of  Mr.  Davis,  and  so  greatly  were  his 
feelings  enlisted  that  he  never  forgot  or  forgave  the  incident;  and 
from  that  day  dated  a  hostility  which  he  displayed  toward  both 
Mr.  Floyd  and  Colonel  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  and  which  is  believed 


s4 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


to  have  influenced  his  conduct  toward  them  in  the  subsequent 
war.” 

In  the  beginning  of  the  “War  Between  the  States,”  which  is 
generally  and  improperly  called  the  “Civil  War,”  Mr.  Floyd 
raised  a  brigade  of  volunteers  and  entered  the  military  service  of 
the  Confederate  States.  He  was  sent  by  the  War  Department  into 
that  portion  of  Virginia  now  known  as  West  Virginia;  and  another 
brigade,  under  a  separate  command,  was  sent  to  the  same  region, 
the  two  to  intercept  two  armies  which  the  Washington  govern¬ 
ment  was  sending  from  different  directions  to  concentrate  at  the 
Falls  of  the  Kanawha  River.  General  Floyd  ascended  the  Gauley 
River  and  crossing  at  Carnifax  Ferry  took  a  position  which  forced 
General  Rosecrans,  who  was  advancing  on  that  line,  to  attack  him. 
Floyd  had  nearly  two  thousand  muskets  while  Rosecrans’s  army 
was  estimated  at  eight  thousand.  The  former  had  several  hours 
in  which  to  prepare  for  the  attack,  which  was  made  at  3  p.m., 
September  10,  1861.  So  skillfully  had  General  Floyd  disposed 
his  mountaineers  that  when  darkness  stopped  the  fighting  he 
had  not  lost  a  man  killed,  and  only  twenty-odd  had  been  wounded. 
General  Rosecrans  knowing  his  great  superiority  of  forces,  fought 
stubbornly,  making  five  distinct  charges  without  effecting  a  break 
in  the  Confederate  line.  This  accounts  for  his  heavy  compara¬ 
tive  loss,  which  his  official  report  stated  to  be  seventeen  killed, 
and  one  hundred  and  forty  wounded.  A  personal  letter  from  the 
Secretary  of  War  to  General  Floyd  said  in  its  initial  paragraph: 

“I  take  great  pleasure  in  communicating  to  you  the  congratu¬ 
lations  of  the  President  as  well  as  my  own,  on  the  brilliant  affair 
in  which  the  good  conduct  and  steady  valor  of  your  whole  com¬ 
mand  were  so  conspicuously  displayed.” 

General  Floyd,  having  now  definitely  ascertained  the  great 
superiority  of  numbers  which  the  foe  in  his  front  had,  and  know¬ 
ing  that  the  Federal  General  Cox,  unless  checked  by  the  other 
Confederate  brigade,  which  seemed  unable  to  act  in  concert  with 
him,  would  soon  be  in  his  rear,  decided  to  fall  back  to  a  less  haz¬ 
ardous  position.  Accordingly  he  recrossed  the  Gauley  in  the 
night,  taking  away  successfully  every  man,  and  all  equipments, 
and  occupying  a  strong  position  in  the  vicinity  of  Cotton  Hill. 
A  short  time  later  the  following  order  was  received  by  the  other 
command. 


MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  BUCHANAN  FLOYD3  85 

“War  Department,  C.  S.  A., 

Richmond,  Sept.  20th,  1861. 

Brig.  Gen.  - 

Gauley  River,  Via  Lewisburg,  Va. 

Sir: — You  are  instructed  to  turn  over  all  the  troops  heretofore  immediately 
under  your  command  to  General  Floyd,  and  report  yourself  in  person  to  the  Adju¬ 
tant  General  in  this  city,  with  the  least  delay.  In  making  the  transfer  to  Gen¬ 
eral  Floyd,  you  will  include  everything  under  your  command. 

By  order  of  the  President 

J.  P.  Benjamin, 

Acting  Secretary  of  War." 

General  Floyd  being  now  reinforced  by  another  brigade  as 
large  as  his  own,  became  more  bold  in  his  movements,  and  there 
followed  a  series  of  maneuvers  and  counter  maneuvers  in  which 
General  Floyd  seems  to  have  over-matched  his  adversaries,  as, 
without  risking  another  serious  battle,  the  Federal  forces  were 
withdrawn,  and  the  two  little  brigades  were  left  to  rest  and  recu¬ 
perate.  As  winter  approached  General  Floyd  was  ordered  to  take 
his  troops  into  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Donelson,  and  he  went  into 
winter  quarters  at  Clarksville,  twenty-five  miles  east  of  that  point, 
and  within  the  jurisdiction  of  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston. 

On  the  succeeding  February  6,  1862,  Fort  Henry  on  the  Ten¬ 
nessee  River,  was  captured  by  Federal  gunboats,  and  on  the  8th 
General  A.  S.  Johnston  wrote  the  Secretary  of  War:  “I  think 
the  gunboats  of  the  enemy  will  probably  take  Fort  Donelson  with¬ 
out  the  necessity  of  employing  their  land  forces  in  cooperation, 
as  seems  to  have  been  done  at  Fort  Henry.” 

This  opinion  was  written  after  a  Council  of  War  had  been  held 
with  Generals  Beauregard  and  Hardee  which  was  considered  of 
such  consequence  that  its  minutes  were  written  out  and  signed 
by  each  General.  An  extract  from  it  is  as  follows: 

“It  was  determined  that  Fort  Henry,  on  the  Tennessee  River, 
having  fallen,  yesterday,  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy;  and  Fort 
Donelson,  on  the  Cumberland  River,  not  being  tenable,  prepara¬ 
tions  should  at  once  be  made  for  the  removal  of  this  army  to 
Nashville,”  etc. 

This  confirms  what  General  A.  S.  Johnston’s  biographer  says, 
as  follows:  “General  Johnston,  presuming  that  General  Grant 
would  follow  up  his  success  at  Fort  Henry,  by  an  immediate  attack 
on  Donelson,  took  his  measures  on  the  supposition  that  Donelson 
was  no  longer  tenable,  and  already  virtually  lost.” 

Notwithstanding  all  these  facts,  four  days  after  General  John¬ 
ston  had  written  his  discouraging  opinion  to  the  Secretary  of  War 


86 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


— that  is  to  say,  on  February  12th,  at  half  past  ten  o’clock  at  night 
■ — he  dictated  the  following  dispatch  to  General  Floyd: 

“My  information  from  Fort  Donelson  is  that  a  battle  will  be 
fought  in  the  morning.  Leave  a  small  force  at  Clarksville  and 
take  the  remainder,  if  possible,  to  Donelson  tonight.” 

The  order  was  received  a  little  before  midnight;  clouds  and  dark¬ 
ness  had  blotted  out  the  earth  and  heavens,  the  air  was  freezing 
cold,  the  roads  and  streams  frozen,  and  Fort  Donelson,  twenty- 
five  miles  distant,  was  “ already  virtually  lost.”  But  General 
Floyd  was  a  soldier — “  His  not  to  reason  why.”  It  was  “  possible,” 
and  at  daylight  the  next  morning  he  marched  his  exhausted  and 
foot-sore  soldiers  into  Fort  Donelson  and  took  command,  as  his 
military  rank  required  him  to  do.  Before  his  men  could  be  placed 
in  position,  and  while  many  of  them  were  trying  to  broil  rashers 
of  bacon  on  the  ends  of  their  ramrods,  the  attack  upon  the  fort 
began  and  raged  throughout  the  day  with  varying  success  until 
darkness  compelled  a  cessation. 

A  member  of  General  Floyd’s  staff,  Major  Peter  J.  Otey,  later 
a  member  of  Congress  from  the  Lynchburg,  Virginia,  District, 
gave  the  writer  detailed  written  information  about  the  affair 
which  is  here  condensed:  “A  sortie  was  arranged  for  the  second 
evening  and  I  was  sent  along  with  General  Pillow’s  command, 
the  advance  column.  Unfortunately  there  was  so  much  delay 
that  General  Floyd’s  plan  was  disarranged,  and  the  sortie  was 
arranged  for  the  next  morning,  the  15th.  In  the  meantime  a 
telegram  had  been  received  from  General  Johnston  ordering: 
‘If  you  lose  the  fort,  bring  your  troops  to  Nashville  if  possible.’” 

“The  next  morning  at  daybreak  Floyd’s  Division  moved  out, 
completely  surprising  Grant’s  right  wing,  throwing  it  into  confu¬ 
sion,  and  driving  it  two  miles.  The  object  was  to  reach  Wynn’s 
Ferry  road  and  to  hold  it,  so  that  all  the  beleaguered  forces  could 
be  taken  out.  The  road  was  gained  and  held  for  a  time,  but  Gen¬ 
eral  Pillow  sent  a  charging  column  against  a  strong  position  some 
distance  beyond  the  road.  General  Floyd,  learning  of  this,  ordered 
me  to  ride  with  all  speed  and  tell  General  Pillow  to  make  no  for¬ 
ward  movement,  but  simply  to  hold  the  road.  But  the  charge 
was  on,  and  our  troops  were  severely  checked,  but  without  con¬ 
fusion.  On  my  way  I  met  General  Buckner  and  hastily  told  him 
of  my  order.  In  surprise  he  said  General  Pillow  had  ordered  him 
to  withdraw  from  the  road,  and  he  had  done  so.  An  advantage 
won  at  a  fearful  cost  of  blood  had  been  lost  by  a  blunder.  When 
the  three  generals  met,  General  Floyd  said,  with  some  feeling: 


MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  BUCHANAN  FLOYD3  87 

‘Our  object  was  not  merely  to  show  that  we  could  fight,  but  to 
gain  and  hold  an  avenue  of  withdrawal.’  Had  General  Floyd’s 
plans  been  properly  understood  and  executed  the  army  could 
have  been  taken  out  with,  possibly,  the  loss  of  one  brigade.”  * 

“After  the  plan  was  frustrated  the  enemy  secured  a  portion  of 
our  outer  works  near  our  extreme  right.  This  was  serious!  Late 
that  night  General  Floyd  called  a  Council  of  War.  About  1  a.m. 
he  told  me  it  had  been  decided  that  such  portion  of  the  army  as 
was  physically  able  to  undertake  it,  should  immediately  cut  its 
way  out — that  Buckner  and  Bushrod  Johnson  had  said  their 
brigades  were  exhausted,  and  the  attempt,  on  their  part,  was 
physically  impossible.*  But  the  attempt  was  to  be  made  by  Floyd’s 
Brigade,  McCausland’s,  Wharton’s  and  the  Mississippi  Regiment, 
Forrest’s  Cavalry  leading  the  way.  Positions  were  being  taken 
in  the  darkness;  Forrest  in  front,  then  McCausland — the  General 
Staff — Floyd’s  Brigade — Wharton’s  Brigade  and  the  Mississippi 
Regiment  to  bring  up  the  rear,  when  the  whistles  of  two  Confed¬ 
erate  steamers  were  heard  in  the  river  above  the  Fort,  and  just 
from  Nashville.  After  a  hasty  consultation  between  Generals 
Floyd  and  Pillow  the  plan  was  changed.  General  Forrest  and  his 
cavalry  were  to  pass  through  a  swamp,  which  they  could  easily 
do  on  their  horses,  and  the  infantry  to  be  ferried  across  the  river 
where  they  would  not  be  liable  to  meet  an  overwhelming  force. 
This  was  accomplished  in  part,  but  before  the  turn  of  the  Mis¬ 
sissippi  Regiment  and  some  others  came,  news  was  received  that 
negotiations  had  been  opened  by  General  Buckner  with  the  enemy 
sooner  than  was  expected,  and  all  those  not  already  crossed  over, 
or  on  the  boat,  were  considered  as  being  subject  to  such  terms  as 
General  Buckner  might  make.” 

“Of  course  General  Floyd  had  transferred  the  command,  which 
was  only  temporarily  his,  through  General  Pillow  to  General 
Buckner.  If,  in  surrendering  his  accidental  and  temporary  chief 
command  over  troops  not  his  own,  he  violated  any  over-nice  mili¬ 
tary  punctilio,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  his  idea  was  to  dis¬ 
encumber  himself  so  that  he  might  take  the  desperate  fighting 
chances  necessary  to  save  his  own  tried  and  seasoned  troops,  and 
others  equally  as  eager  and  anxious,  to  the  Confederacy.  He  did 
save  a  splendid  body  of  men,  which,  some  days  later,  under  the 

*  These  two  brigades  had  been  in  the  trenches  for  many  days  before  the  general 
assault  was  made.  Cold,  hunger  and  double  duty  had  done  their  work  upon  them, 
and  it  would  have  been  little  less  than  a  crime  had  General  Floyd  ordered  them  to 
join  in  the  effort  to  cut  their  way  out. 


88 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


control  of  his  cool  judgment  and  strong  will,  gave  invaluable  aid 
in  saving  the  hospitable  city  of  Nashville  from  helplessly  submitting 
to  the  placing  of  a  blot  upon  her  name,  which  would  also  have 
reflected  severely  upon  the  fair  fame  of  the  Army  of  Tennessee.” 

In  speaking  of  the  scene  upon  the  battlefield  after  the  Fort  was 
surrendered,  the  historian,  E.  A.  Pollard,  says:  “The  ground  was 
in  many  places  red  with  frozen  blood,  and  the  snow  under  the  pine 
trees  was  marked  with  crimson  stains  along  the  line  where  lay 
two  miles  of  dead,  strewn  thickly,  mingled  with  firearms,  artil¬ 
lery,  dead  horses,  and  the  paraphernalia  of  the  battlefield.” 

Thinking  of  the  last  order  from  General  Johnston,  read  amidst 
the  roar  of  battle:  “If  you  lose  the  Fort  bring  your  troops  to 
Nashville,  if  possible ,”  General  Floyd  made  all  possible  haste  to 
that  city,  expecting  to  find  strenuous  work,  now  that  the  Cumber¬ 
land  River  was  open  to  Federal  gunboats.  He  found  the  work 
strenuous  enough,  but  of  a  different  nature  from  what  he  antici¬ 
pated.  The  citizens,  alarmed  and  infuriated  at  the  retreat  of 
General  Johnston  from  Bowling  Green,  and  the  loss  of  Forts 
Henry  and  Donelson,  were  in  a  wild  state  of  confusion  and  turmoil 
closely  approaching  riot  and  anarchy.  Soldiers,  and  even  subor¬ 
dinate  officers,  sympathizing  with  the  people  and  yielding  to  the 
excitement,  were  joining  the  angry  mobs,  and  the  bonds  of  mili¬ 
tary  discipline  seemed  liable  to  be  cast  off  entirely.  Commissary 
and  ordnance  warehouses,  containing  millions  worth  of  stores, 
were  being  looted  and  supplies  thrown  into  the  streets  for  the  rabble 
to  scramble  over;  while  in  the  residence  portions  of  the  city  citi¬ 
zens  and  soldiers  made  night  hideous  with  yells,  curses  and  the 
reports  of  firearms.  General  Duke  in  his  Life  of  Morgan,  says: 
“The  Tennessee  troops  were  naturally  the  most  influenced  by 
considerations  which  affected  the  citizens,  but  all  shared  the  feel¬ 
ing.  Some  wept  at  the  thought  of  abandoning  the  city  to  a  fate 
which  they  esteemed  as  dreadful  as  utter  destruction;  and  many, 
infuriated,  loudly  advocated  the  burning  of  the  city  to  the  ground, 
that  the  enemy  might  have  nothing  of  it  but  its  ashes.” 

Into  this  chaos  of  confusion  General  Floyd  marched  his  battle- 
worn  troops,  and  was  immediately  put  in  command  of  the  city 
by  General  Johnston,  who  assigned  to  him  the  difficult  task  of 
restoring  order  and  discipline,  protecting  public  property,  and 
reviving  the  confidence  and  hope  of  the  people.  He  performed 
the  first  item  of  duty  with  wonderful  skill  and  celerity.  A  suffi¬ 
cient  force  was  added  to  his  command;  patrolling  squads  were  sent 
throughout  the  city;  soldiers  were  arrested  and  sent  to  their  com- 


MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  BUCHANAN  FLOYD3  89 

mands;  the  people  to  their  homes,  and  heavy  guards  were  put 
over  government  stores.  Citizens  of  whatever  degree  of  respec¬ 
tability  were  treated  with  all  possible  courtesy,  but  lawlessness  and 
rowdyism  were  quickly  and  severely  suppressed.  General  Duke, 
an  eye-witness  says:  “Nothing  could  have  been  more  admirable 
than  the  fortitude,  patience  and  good  judgment  which  General 
Floyd  displayed  in  his  arduous  and  unenviable  task.  I  saw  a 
great  deal  of  him  while  he  was  commanding  at  Nashville  and  was 
greatly  impressed  by  him.  He  was  endowed  with  no  common 
nerve,  will  and  judgment.” 

So  great  was  the  feeling  of  resentment  against  General  Johnston, 
on  the  part  of  many  of  the  best  people  of  the  city,  that  a  large  and 
angry  mob  of  them  collected  around  the  residence  in  which  he 
made  his  temporary  headquarters,  and  with  covert  threatenings, 
and  every  demonstration  of  a  purpose  to  resort  to  violence,  de¬ 
manded  to  know  of  him  if  he  intended  to  fight,  or  to  give  them  and 
the  country  up  to  the  enemy.  General  Floyd,  hearing  of  the 
demonstration,  hastened  to  the  point  on  foot  and  unattended.  He 
was  recognized  by  several  personal  acquaintances,  and  when  the 
people  understood  that  he  wished  to  reason  with  them,  they  quieted 
down  and  listened  to  a  most  serious  and  earnest  heart-to-heart 
talk  on  the  distressing  condition  of  the  country  generally;  the 
result  of  which  was  to  cause  them  to  disperse  quietly  with  solemn 
and  patriotic  thoughts,  lifted  above  their  local  troubles. 

But  the  clamor  outside  seems  not  to  have  greatly  disturbed 
General  Johnston,  for  he  was  busily  planning  the  new  distribu¬ 
tion,  now  made  necessary,  of  the  forces  of  his  Military  District; 
and  considering  Chattanooga  now  a  vitally  important  point,  he 
had  slated  General  Floyd  for  the  command  there.  But  it  was 
fated  not  to  be.  Like  the  traditional  clap  of  thunder  and  clear 
sky,  an  order  came  from  President  Davis  relieving  both  Floyd 
and  Pillow  of  their  commands  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  viola¬ 
tion  of  military  propriety  for  them  to  transfer  their  over-command 
under  the  circumstances  existing  at  Donelson.  A  difference  had 
been  discovered  “’Twixt  Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee!” 

General  Floyd  accepted  the  situation  philosophically.  If  the 
thought  came  into  his  mind  that  this  was  a  neat  but  unfair  “flare- 
back,”  so  to  speak,  from  the  little  disagreement  during  Buchan¬ 
an’s  administration,  and  served  a  double  purpose  by  diverting 
public  attention  from  more  vital  matters,  he  did  not  say  so.  But 
when  the  people  of  Nashville  heard  of  the  matter,  after  General 
Floyd’s  departure  from  the  city,  they  said  so  with  vociferation. 


go 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


The  Virginia  people,  too,  thought  so,  and  expressed  their  senti¬ 
ments  in  action.  The  Legislature  was  in  session  at  Richmond 
and  the  following  bill  was  brought  in  and  passed — nem.  con. 

“Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  that  the  Governor 
of  this  Commonwealth  be,  and  is  hereby  authorized  to  commission 
John  B.  Floyd,  a  Major  General  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  with 
authority  to  raise  by  voluntary  enlistment  a  force  not  exceeding 
ten  thousand  men  who  are  not  in  the  service  of  this  State,  or  of 
the  Confederate  States,  or  liable  to  draft  under  the  Act  of  Congress 
commonly  called  the  Conscription  Law,”  etc. 

Other  items  dealt  with  ways  and  means,  the  most  important  one 
appropriating  $2,500,000  to  equip  and  support  the  new  command. 
The  bill  was  approved  April  16,  1862;  just  two  months  after  the 
partial  evacuation  of  Fort  Donelson. 

Never  before  did  the  State  of  Virginia  confer  so  great  an  honor 
upon  one  of  her  sons.  A  feeling  had  grown  up  in  the  South, 
particularly  in  Virginia,  that  while  Mr.  Davis,  as  a  statesman  and 
patriot  was  inferior  to  none,  he  was  capable  of  subordinating  his 
higher  impulses  to  hasty  judgments  founded  (in  part,  at  least,  and 
perhaps  unconsciously)  upon  his  personal  prejudices.  This  was 
made  more  pronounced  later,  when  he  discouraged  and  disheart¬ 
ened  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  as  well  as  that  of  the  West, 
by  removing  from  command  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  in  the 
Southwest,  while  he  was  making  strenuous  and  successful  efforts 
to  gather  together  sufficient  troops  to  defeat  General  Sherman  on 
his  marooning  tramp  through  Georgia;  which  object  it  was  known 
in  that  section,  and  fully  believed  by  the  troops  in  Virginia,  would 
have  been  accomplished  without  unnecessary  delay.* 

*  It  was  reported  by  many  who  came  from  Atlanta  to  Virginia,  after  the  removal 
of  General  Johnston,  that  his  masterly  strategy  had  delayed  the  Federal  army  of 
nearly  100,000,  while  his  own  army,  of  less  than  40,000,  when  he  fought  at  Reseca, 
was  being  daily  augmented  by  hundreds  returning  from  hospitals  and  sick  furlough, 
many  bringing  recruits  with  them,  up  to  the  day  of  Johnston’s  removal.  The  news 
of  that  event,  while  he  was  preparing  to  give  battle  in  front  of  Atlanta,  with  the 
advantage  in  his  favor — at  last,  after  two  months  of  brilliant  strategy — put  a  sud¬ 
den  stop  to  the  influx  of  absentees  and  recruits;  and  many  who  had  just  arrived 
and  had  not  yet  been  enrolled,  returned  to  their  homes,  turning  others  back  and 
saying  to  the  people  that  the  removal  of  Gen.  Johnston  at  that  critical  crisis  had 
given  the  Confederate  cause  its  death  blow.  This  addetd  greatly  to  the  feeling  of 
unrest  and  distrust  which  for  some  time  had  existed. among  the  soldiers  and  leading 
members  of  the  Congress,  and  produced  a  condition  of  mind  which  the  able  author 
of  The  Lost  Cause  speaks  of  as  “the  faint  shadow  of  a  counter  revolution.”  In 
the  Congress  there  was  a  series  of  measures  looking  to  the  appointment  of  General 
Lee  as  military  dictator— the  restoration  of  General  Johnston  to  active  command— 


MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  BUCHANAN  FLOYD3  9 1 

Of  course  the  people  of  Virginia  were  too  earnestly  patriotic 
to  make  trouble  for  the  President  of  the  Confederacy,  and  weaken 
his  prestige  in  such  trying  times.  But  they  declined  to  submit 
meekly  to  an  indignity  unjustly  and  willfully  put  upon  one  of 
their  most  popular  and  prominent  citizens,  and  recruiting  for 
Floyd’s  Division  was  pushed  forward  vigorously.  Within  a  month 
or  so  he  had  a  sufficient  force  to  make  an  inroad  into  eastern  Ken¬ 
tucky.  But  here  a  complication  arose.  The  Confederate  author¬ 
ities  interposed  the  objection  that  an  independent  command  might 
embarrass  general  military  operations;  and  moreover,  that  under 
the  Constitution  the  Confederate  government  had  exclusive 
jurisdiction  over  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  war.  This  latter 
was,  of  course,  well  known  to  General  Floyd,  but  raising  the  point 
in  that  connection,  gave  it  a  significance  which  did  not  belong  to 
it;  and  considering  absolute  harmony  in  the  military  service  as 
more  helpful  to  the  Confederate  cause  than  he  could  hope  to  make 
the  service  of  his  special  command,  he  disbanded  it,  with  the 
Governor’s  consent,  and  retired  to  his  home  in  Abingdon. 

The  unaccustomed  hardships  of  his  strenuous  military  experi¬ 
ence,  and  particularly  the  extreme  exposure,  in  freezing  weather 
to  which  he  had  subjected  himself,  from  the  first  hour  of  his  mid¬ 
night  march  to  Fort  Donelson  to  the  close  of  his  military  service 

and  the  reform  of  the  Cabinet  so  far,  at  least,  as  to  secure  a  better  administration 
of  the  War  Office.  These  measures  were  imperfectly  accomplished.  General  Lee 
was  nominally  put  in  command  of  all  military  forces;  but  this  prudent  chieftain 
refrained  from  exercising,  practically,  such  authority.  The  restoration  of  General 
Johnston  was  ungraciously  conceded,  but  he  was  not  put  in  command  of  the  troops 
opposing  Sherman  until  the  latter  had  swept  through  two  States  to  the  pine  hills 
of  North  Carolina,  and  the  Confederate  forces  were  so  broken  and  disorganized 
that  the  campaign  was — like  Donelson  when  General  Floyd  was  ordered  there — 
already  virtually  lost.  As  to  the  War  Office  Mr.  Seddon,  the  Secretary,  an  aged 
and  emaciated  Virginia  gentleman,  resigned  despite  the  opposition  of  Mr.  Davis, 
who  angrily  declared  that  the  policy  of  the  office  would  not  be  changed. 

The  writer  hesitated  long  before  deciding  to  print  the  subject-matter  of  this 
footnote.  Whatever  may  have  been  Mr.  Davis’  failings  no  one  can  doubt  his 
devoted  loyalty  to  the  cause  for  which  the  South  fought.  Besides,  the  inhuman 
and  cowardly  treatment  to  which  he  was  subjected  after  his  imprisonment  in  Fort¬ 
ress  Monroe,  threw  around  him  the  halo  of  a  martyr,  suffering,  vicariously,  for  the 
South;  while  every  Southern  man  who  possessed  sufficient  manliness  to  stand  out 
in  defense  of  his  home,  his  section,  and  the  traditions  of  his  forefathers,  felt  that 
he  himself  was  equally  amenable  to  the  spirit  of  vengeance,  if  there  need  be  physi¬ 
cal  suffering  to  appease  sectional  wrath. 

For  these  reasons  there  was  hesitancy,  but  it  was  put  aside  by  the  thought  that 
sympathetic  fellow-feeling  should  not  be  permitted  to  withhold  light  from  the  fair 
field  of  justice  between  man  and  man,  and  from  the  naked  truth  of  history. 


92 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


in  Nashville,  had  so  undermined  his  general  health,  that  quiet 
rest  in  his  pleasant  home,  and  the  tender  care  of  family  and  friends, 
failed  to  check  its  downward  tendency;  and  he  passed  away  dur¬ 
ing  the  ensuing  summer  honored  and  beloved  by  all. 

He  was  a  gifted  man,  both  mentally  and  physically.  Command¬ 
ing  in  personal  appearance,  self-reliant  in  judgment,  an  eloquent 
speaker,  polished  and  courteous  in  manner,  yet  uncompromising 
in  matters  of  principle — these  and  his  unreserved  candor  of  speech 
to  and  toward  all  men  and  subjects,  made  the  multitude  his 
enthusiastic  friends,  and  a  few  his  bitter  enemies.  After  his 
resignation  from  Mr.  Buchanan’s  cabinet,  which  was  demanded 
by  a  nice  sense  of  official  dignity,  he  was  outrageously  attacked  and 
maligned  by  swarms  of  Northern  newspaper  writers  whose  ulte¬ 
rior  object  was  to  manufacture  prejudice  against  the  South 
generally.  And  though  a  committee  of  Congress,  presumably 
entertaining  a  latent  desire  to  discredit  him,  found  no  hook  upon 
which  to  hang  a  tenable  accusation,  the  newspapers  kept  up  the 
attack  with  undiminished  virulence.  It  was  a  convenient  and 
every-ready  means  of  flamingly  advertising  their  own  wide-awake 
and  superlative  “patriotism”;  and  of  firing  the  hearts  of  the 
Northern  people  against  their  brethren  of  the  South. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  NATHANIEL  FLOYD1  AND  HIS 
WIFE  VIRGINIA  WHITE 

Nathaniel  Floyd1,  the  youngest  of  the  children  of  William  and 
Abadiah  Davis  Floyd,  was  born  in  Amherst  County,  Virginia, 
1767.  He  accompanied  his  older  brothers  in  the  exodus  to  Ken¬ 
tucky  when  a  mere  youth,  eager  for  adventure,  but  too  young  to 
be  trusted  to  take  his  scalp  beyond  the  sound  of  the  dinner  horn. 
He  was  fond  of  hunting  and  forest  ranging,  however,  but  did  not 
have  his  turn  with  the  Indians  until  after  five  of  the  family,  broth¬ 
ers  and  brothers-in-law,  had  been  killed  by  them,  and  the  savages 
had  been  compelled  to  give  up  their  hunting  grounds  on  the  Ken¬ 
tucky  side  of  the  Ohio  River.  Thus  it  came  about  that,  while  he 
had  frequently  joined  in  driving  encroaching  savage  back  across 
the  river,  his  scalp  had  never  been  in  very  great  peril,  and  he  had 
never  taken  part  in  “a  good  square  battle,”  as  he  himself  expressed 
it,  until,  after  having  passed  the  age  limit  for  military  service, 
he  fought  gallantly  with  the  Kentucky  volunteers  in  the  battle  of 
New  Orleans;  floating  down  from  Louisville,  Ky.,  to  that  city  in  a 
flatboat  with  a  small  party  he  had  gathered,  who,  after  covering 


NATHANIEL  FLOYD  AND  VIRGINIA  WHITE 


93 


themselves  with  glory — and  Louisiana  swamp  mud — tramped  the 
800  miles  back  home  with  but  little  money  and  very  insufficient 
foot-wear. 

Twenty-odd  years  before  that  memorable  expedition  and  battle 
he  married  in  the  village  of  Culpeper,  Virginia,  Miss  Virginia 
White,  a  daughter  of  a  popular  family  of  that  town,  and,  returning 
to  Kentucky,  the  young  couple  located  on  Floyd’s  Fork  of  Salt 
River,  about  fifteen  miles  from  Louisville,  where  they  reared  quite 
a  large  family,  ever  maintaining  in  the  wild-woods  a  forest  home 
for  summer  outings.  He  died  about  1842  or  a  few  years  later. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  NATHANIEL  FLOYD1 

1.  William  Preston  Floyd2.  Married  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 

Miss - Moore,  daughter  of  a  family  which  came  from 

Pennsylvania.  Tradition  says  they  removed  to  Peoria,  Illinois, 
with  two  children:  Lee  and  Caroline. 

2.  Woodford  Floyd2.  Married  Mrs.  Mary  Fielding,  a  young 
widow.  Died  without  issue. 

3.  Sallie  Powell  Floyd2.  Born  1792.  Married  Thomas 
P.  Beeler  of  Beelersville,  Kentucky,  August  4, 1812.  Their  children 
were: 

a.  Charles  Lee  Beeler3.  Was  educated  in  the  local  schools 
and  had  barely  attained  his  majority  when  he  made  a  trip  to 
New  Orleans  by  the  usual  method  and  route.  Those  were  hazard¬ 
ous  trips  which  many  young  bloods  of  Kentucky  looked  forward 
to  during  all  their  school  days,  as  a  possible  future  adventure; 
floating  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  in  dugout  canoes, 
or  rude  flatboats,  and  tramping  back  along  unfrequented  trails 
800  miles,  through  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Tennessee  and  Ken¬ 
tucky,  to  Louisville,  there  to  entertain  their  young  associates 
with  descriptions  of  the  “wonders  of  the  world.”  In  those  days 
and  in  that  land  the  young  men  had  “red  blood”  in  their  veins. 
If  some  doting  grandmother,  thinking  of  the  old  days  in  Virginia, 
reminded  them  that  their  blood  was  blue,  they  lightly  ignored  the 
imputation  and  went  their  way  down  the  great  rivers  to  the  great 
city,  perhaps  never  to  be  heard  of  again. 

There  were  many  families  who  lost  sons  in  that  way  up  to  the 
time  that  those  rivers  commenced  to  be  navigated  by  steamboats. 
Young  Beeler  was  never  heard  of  again  by  his  family. 

b.  Caroline  E.  Beeler3.  Born  1820.  Married  at  Shep- 
herdsville,  Kentucky.  Mr.  M.  P.  Schoch  of  Pennsylvania.  Mr. 


94 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


Schoch  was  an  educated  and  refined  gentleman  of  German  extrac¬ 
tion.  He  was  the  prime  mover  in  organizing  the  firm  of  CreeV 
Schoch  and  Donnelly,  the  first  organized  company  to  bore  for  oil 
in  Wood,  Wfcrt  and  Ritchie  Counties.  Their  properties,  combined 
with  adjacent  properties,  all  now  owned  by  the  Standard  Oil 
Company,  form  one  of  the  important  sources  of  supply  of  that 
great  monopoly.  Mr.  Schoch  died  in  1890  and  Mrs.  Schoch  in 
1904.  The  writer  knew  Mrs.  Schoch  when  she  was  over  eighty 
years  of  age  and  never,  in  his  own  long  life,  knew  an  aged  lady 
who  had  retained  more  of  the  vivacity,  grace  and  charm  of  manner, 
which  were  the  heritage  of  her  youth,  than  had  this  amiable  gentle¬ 
woman  of  the  old  school,  in  whose  behalf  Father  Time  seemed  to 
have  ignored  his  inexorable  laws. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  SCHOCH3 

b1  Jacob  Lesher  Schoch4.  Born  1843  at  Mount  Carmel, 
Illinois.  Graduated  in  medicine  at  the  Maryland  University  in 
1864.  Married  his  cousin,  Miss  Sarah  Jane  Mathews  of  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  and  built  up  an  extensive  and  lucrative  practice  of  medi¬ 
cine  in  that  State.  They  have  two  children: 

bb1.  Edna  Floyd  Schoch5.  Is  highly  accomplished  and 
possesses  literary  talent.  She  married  Goodwin  Brooke  Smith  of 
Philadelphia;  President  of  Inventors’  and  Investors’  Corporation. 

bb2.  Lewis  MacLane  Tiffany  Schoch5.  A  bright  young 
man,  recently  graduated  from  college. 

CONTINUING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  SCHOCH3 

i  ; 

b2.  Josephine  LulaA-Schoch4.  Born  in  Louisville,  Kentucky, 
January  29,  1845.  She  was  educated  at  Cedar  Hill  Seminary, 
Mount  Joy,  Pennsylvania;  and  Asheville,  North  Carolina.  After 
her  marriage  with  Mr.  Charles  Fleetwood  Hanna,  a  son  of  one  of 
the  most  substantial  families  of  Baltimore,  and  a  widower  with 
three  interesting  children,  she  became  a  model  of  domesticity, 
keeping  an  open  house  of  hospitality  for  all  the  friends,  and 
friend’s  friends,  of  the  family. 

Mr.  Hanna  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  John  Hanna,  one  of  the 
stern  leaders  of  the  Scotch  Covenanters,  spoken  of  in  the  writings 
of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  so  bravely  and  determinedly  adhered  to 
their  religious  faith  until  the  relentless  cruelties  of  the  Claver- 
house  Wars,  in  which  they  were  utterly  overwhelmed,  drove  them 
out  of  Scotland  into  the  mountainous  region  in  the  north  of  Ireland. 


THE  HANNA,  SCHOCH  AND  SHOCK  FAMILIES 


95 


It  was  there  that  Mr.  Charles  Fleetwood  Hanna’s  grandfather, 
Tjohn  Hanna,  was  born  in  1780.  When  fully  grown  he  emigrated  to 
Maryland,  and,  after  a  time,  went  into  business  in  the  thriv¬ 
ing  town  of  Baltimore,  as  a  general  importing  merchant.  He 
thrived  greatly  in  his  business,  and  in  the  War  of  1812  several  of 
his  vessels,  which  were  in  port  when  the  British  advanced  upon 
Baltimore,  were  taken  by  the  authorities,  along  with  other  vessels, 
and  scuttled  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  at  the  mouth  of  Patapsco  River, 
to  prevent  the  British  ships  from  having  an  open  channel  to  the 
wharves  of  the  city.  He  was  a  leading  patriot,  and  on  that  occa¬ 
sion  commanded  the  Fells  Point  Light  Dragoons  in  the  Battle  of 
North  Point.  A  brother  of  his  commanded  one  of  the  companies, 
and  all  did  gallant  service. 

Mr.  Hanna’s  grandmother  was  a  daughter  of  John  Cooper  who 
built  at  Charlestown,  Cecil  County,  Maryland,  the  first  shipyard 
established  in  America.  It  was  there  that  the  model  Baltimore 
Clipper — a  class  of  light  vessels  which  became  famous,  the  world 
over,  for  speed,  beauty  and  stanchness — was  planned  and  con¬ 
structed.  John  Cooper  was  a  younger  son  of  Sir  John  Cooper, 
Earl  of  Shaftsbury,  England. 

Mr.  Hanna’s  father,  William  Hanna,  was  born  in  Baltimore, 
October  22,  1806.  He  married  Miss  Caroline  Small,  a  daughter 
of  Colonel  Jacob  Small,  a  man  of  prominence  and  wealth.  This 
lady,  by  inheritance,  brought  into  the  Hanna  family  a  large  bound¬ 
ary  of  land  which  is  now  in  the  heart  of  the  city  of  Baltimore. 

Mr.  Hanna’s  long  experience,  peculiar  qualifications  and  thor¬ 
ough  business  knowledge  and  habits,  make  him  an  indispensable 
agent  of  the  Internal  Revenue  Department  of  the  Government  at 
the  port  of  Baltimore.  He  and  his  family  reside  in  Baltimore  and 
have  a  handsome  summer  residence  in  Denmore  Park. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  HANNA4 

bb1.  Wiliiam  Hooper  Hanna5.  Born  and  educated  in  Balti¬ 
more;  an  active,  enterprising  young  man,  engaged  in  prospecting 
and  developing  immense  deposits  of  kaolin  which  have  been 
found  to  exist  on  an  estate  owned  by  the  family  in  Cecil  County, 
Maryland. 

bb2.  Florence  Jane  Hanna5.  Born  in  Baltimore  and  edu¬ 
cated  at  Hannah  More  Academy,  Reisterstown,  Maryland;  The 
Maryland  College,  Lutherville,  Maryland,  and  Goucher  College, 
Baltimore.  A  young  lady  of  many  accomplishments,  who  prac¬ 
tices  the  useful  as  well  as  the  ornamental. 


96 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


CONTINUING  THE  CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  SCHOCH 

b3  Nathaniel  Floyd  Schoch4.  Born  July  19,  1847.  At  college 
made  a  specialty  of  engineering  and  surveying.  Growing  up  in 
the  early  boom  days  of  oil  in  Pennsylvania,  he  made  a  fortune  of 
$100,000  by  lucky  speculations  before  he  was  twenty-one  years  of 
age.  Died  unmarried  in  1898. 

b4.  Edwin  Lee  Schoch4.  Born  February  22,  1851.  Resides 
in  the  Southwest.  Unmarried. 

b5.  John  Buchanan  Floyd  Shock4.  Born  in  Cumberland 
County,  Pennsylvania,  August  9,  1853.  When  less  than  twenty 
years  of  age  he  went  to  Texas  and  accepted  a  position  as  telegrapher 
in  the  United  States  Signal  Service.  In  this  service,  and  in  busi¬ 
ness  generally,  he  found  that  the  unusual  spelling  of  his  name 
caused  many  errors  and  awkward  embarrassments  in  his  corre¬ 
spondence.  For  this  reason  he  decided  to  spell  his  name  phoneti¬ 
cally,  and  has  decided  that  he  and  his  descendants  will  adhere  to 
that  spelling,  as  given  above. 

At  Graham,  Texas,  he  met  and  admired  a  very  attractive  young 
lady,  Miss  Sarah  Roberta  Richards,  whose  family  had  emigrated 
from  Alabama.  The  admiration  soon  became  mutual,  and  they 
were  married  at  the  bride’s  home  on  April  25,  1878.  Immediately 
the  young  man  launched  upon  the  sea  of  speculation  in  cattle, 
lands,  and  ultimately  in  stocks,  securities  and  all  legitimate  sub¬ 
jects  of  speculation.  He  is  First  Vice-President  of  the  Central 
National  Bank  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  also  Vice  President  of 
the  Vandeventer  Trust  Company  of  the  same  city.  He  has  a 
special  fancy  for  speculation  in  large  bodies  of  wild  lands  in  Texas 
and  Mexico,  and  is  ready  at  all  times  to  promote  such  enterprises 
by  the  building  of  a  branch  railroad  or  an  irrigating  system  to 
enhance  values.  His  children  are: 

bb1.  Sallie  Floyd  Shock5.  Born  August  18,  1880.  Unmar¬ 
ried,  and  her  mother’s  efficient  assistant  in  managing  household 
affairs. 

bb2.  Mary  Shock5.  Born  September  6,  1882.  Married  Wil- 
mot  Vernon  Walsh  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  July  19,  1903.  They 
reside  in  Jacksonville,  Florida,  and  have  had  two  children  born  to 
them:  Wilmot  Vernon  Walsh,  Jr.6;  born  May  21,  1904,  and  Vir¬ 
ginia  Clair  Walsh  ;  born  May  19,  1906.  Died  February  10,  1909. 

bb3.  Kenan  Conlyn  Shock5.  Born  January  15,  1885.  In 
business  in  Jacksonville,  Florida.  Unmarried. 


AN  OLD  MAP  WHICH  EXPOSES  A  SLANDER 


97 


bb4.  Fretwell  Shock5.  Born  July  28,  1891.  An  entertain¬ 
ing  and  enterprising  young  gentleman  who  is  fond  of  fishing  for 
lake  trout  in  Canada,  and  the  lively  tarpon  in  Florida. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  NATHANIEL  FLOYD1  (CONTINUED) 

4.  Mary  Powell  Floyd2.  Married  first  Mr.  John  James  of 
Louisville  and  had  a  daughter  named  Mary  Annie  James3,  who 

married  Mr. - Lane  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  Mrs.  James 

married,  the  second  time,  Mr.  John  Ballew  and  had  a  son  named 
John  Floyd  Ballew3.  All  the  family  removed  to  Peoria,  Illinois. 

5.  Abadiah  Davis  Floyd2.  Married  first  Richard  Meri¬ 
wether  of  Virginia.  He  died  without  issue  and  she  married  the 
second  time  Henry  Weaver  of  Ohio.  The  issue  of  this  marriage 
was: 

Susan  Floyd  Weaver3.  Married  Mr. - Gunter  of  Ten¬ 

nessee,  a  man  of  wealth  and  high  standing.  Many  long  years 
after  Mrs.  Susan  Floyd  Gunter  had  become  an  aged  widow,  she 
resurrected  from  among  old  letters  and  papers  of  her  mother,  a 
brief  note  written  more  than  a  century  before,  by  a  little  boy,  her 
cousin,  telling  of  the  death  of  his  brother  Charles  Floyd,  of  the 
Lewis  and  Clark  expedition;  thus  satisfying  the  Floyd  Memorial 
Association  of  Sioux  City,  Iowa,  regarding  the  parentage  of  Ser¬ 
geant  Charles  Floyd,  whom  they  had  honored  with  a  magnificent 
monument,  erected  near  the  spot  on  which  he  was  buried,  when 
all  that  region  was  one  vast  unknown  wilderness.  Mrs.  Gunter 
was  of  distinguished  ancestry  on  her  father’s  side  also;  being 
a  great-granddaughter  of  George  Clinton,  Vice  President  with 
Thomas  Jefferson,  1805-8,  and  also  with  James  Madison,  1809-12. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  GUNTER3  (WEAVER2,  FLOYD1) 

a.  Ernest  Gunter4.  A  civil  engineer  by  profession  and  an 
accomplished  musician.  He  founded  the  Mozart  Society  of  Louis¬ 
ville,  Kentucky,  and  was  the  original  Director  of  the  Beethoven 
Club  of  that  city. 

b.  Carrie  Gunter4.  A  lady  of  literary  attainments,  a  pleas¬ 
ant  writer,  and  a  student  of  the  log-cabin  period  of  Kentucky 
history.  The  writer  had  the  honor  and  pleasure  of  receiving  from 
her  a  treasured  relic  of  the  past — a  copy  of  an  old  map  of  the  region 
around  Louisville,  Kentucky,  drawn  by  John  Filson,  “inscribed  to 
the  Honorable  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and 


98 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


to  his  Excellency,  George  Washington,  late  Commander  in  Chief 
of  their  Army,”  and  published  in  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania, 
1784 — Henry  D.  Pursell,  engraver. 

On  this  map  is  located  the  home  of  General  George  Rogers 
Clark,  and  also  a  grant  of  land  including  it,  of  150,000  acres.  Also 
plainly  marked  are  the  homes  of  the  Floyds,  the  Todds,  the  Mar¬ 
shalls,  Bryans,  Sturgis,  Daniel  Boone  and  other  notable  Indian 
fighters  who  cooperated  with  each  other  in  those  early  days.  Gen¬ 
eral  Clark’s  land  begins  at  the  mouth  of  Silver  Creek  and  extends 
up  the  Ohio  River  to  Eighteen-mile  Creek,  with  an  average  depth 
of  over  a  dozen  miles,  making,  approximately,  234  square  miles 
of  unusually  fertile  land. 

This  nice  little  farm  brings  to  mind  a  story  published  many  years 
ago,  by  an  iconoclast  of  the  “Peter  Parley”  order,  to  the  effect 
that  the  State  of  Virginia  presented  General  Clark  a  handsome 
sword  some  time  after  the  war,  which,  when  delivered  to  him  by 
a  committee  at  his  home,  Clarkville  at  the  junction  of  Silver  Creek 
and  the  Ohio  River,  he  drew  from  the  scabbard,  thrust  into  the 
ground  and  broke  with  the  intemperate  exclamation:  “When 
Virginia  needed  a  sword  I  gave  her  one!  Now  that  I  am  old, 
maimed  and  need  bread  she  sends  me  a  plaything!”  This  very 
improbable  story  has  been  republished  many  times  without  ques¬ 
tion.  Will  the  ghouls  of  literature  and  history  never  grow  weary 
of  fabricating  such  stories  about  Southern  people  and  their  affairs? 
The  map  spoken  of  shows  that  General  Clark’s  landed  estate 
was  worth,  even  at  that  early  period,  largely  over  half  a  million 
dollars.* 

*That  restless  spirit  of  detraction  sometimes  finds  methods  of  expressing 
itself  other  than  in  words.  A  recent  and  notable  example  of  this  is  found  in 
the  frontispiece  illustration  in  a  popular  and  widely  read  Southern  romance 
which  deals  with  incidents  of  the  War  between  the  States.  The  publishers  have 
foisted  upon  the  public,  and  upon  the  amiable  and  talented  authoress,  a  picture 
of  “  Stonewall  ”  Jackson,  done  in  color  and  artistically  executed,  which  is  so 
palpably  a  premeditated  caricature — a  pictured  libel — that  it  excites  the  indig¬ 
nant  ire  of  every  old  soldier  who  served  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

Some  years  ago  the  writer  had  a  similar  experience  which  put  upon  him  the 
disagreeable  duty  of  peremptorily  forbidding  the  use  of  a  full  page  illustration 
representing  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  passing  through  Chambersburg, 
Penn.  It  gave  to  Robert  E.  Lee  the  form,  features,  and  an  attitude,  which 
might  have  portrayed,  properly,  a  rowdy  leader  of  a  mob  of  “  bummers.” 

“Stonewall”  Jackson’s  outward  appearance  may  not  at  all  times  have  sug¬ 
gested  the  brilliant  military  genius  which  slumbered  within,  but  no  human 
creature  ever  saw  him,  at  any  time,  present  anything  approaching  the  awkward, 
uncouth — not  to  say  clownish — figure  given  him  in  “The  Long  Roll.” 


THE  VIRGINIA  FLOYD-POWELL  FAMILY 


99 


6.  Eliza  Floyd2.  Married  Mr. - Bolling  of  Green 

River,  Kentucky.  They  named  their  eldest  child  John  and  had 
two  other  children.  No  other  information  could  be  obtained. 

7.  John  Floyd?.  Named  for  his  uncle  Colonel  John  Floyd1. 
When  about  eighteen  years  of  age,  impatient  of  restraint,  and 
like  his  nephew  Charles  Lee  Beeler,  longing  to  see  the  sights  of 
civilization  in  a  great  city,  he  made  the  hazardous  trip  to  New 
Orleans  and  was  never  again  heard  of  by  his  family. 

DESCENDANTS  OF  SALLIE  FLOYD1  AND  HER 
HUSBAND  WYATT  POWELL 

Sallie  Floyd1  was  the  eldest  child  of  William  Floyd  and  Abe- 
diah  Davis  and  the  only  one  who  was  never  in  the  “dark  and 
bloody  land  of  Kentucke.”  She  was  born  in  Amherst  County, 
Virginia,  October  15,  1747,  and  was  educated  in  the  log  school- 
house  of  the  Floyd  and  Davis  neighborhood,  the  teachers  of 
which  were  usually  classical  scholars,  young  sons  of  good  old 
English  or  Welsh  families,  seeking  to  make  for  themselves  a  foot¬ 
hold  in  the  New  World. 

In  1768  she  married  Wyatt  Powell,  a  young  gentleman  of  good 
family,  comfortable  means  and  fine  attainments,  who  was  a  few 
months  her  junior.  He  had  come  up  from  the  Eastern  Shore 
where  his  family  were  prosperous  and  prominent  people.  When 
the  Floyds  removed  to  Kentucky  his  financial  interests,  and  his 
wife’s  five  small  children,  kept  them  bound  to  the  sunny  hills  of 
the  “Free  State,”  as  Amherst  County  was  nicknamed. 

CHILDREN  OF  MR.  AND  MRS.  WYATT  POWELL 

1.  John  Floyd  Powell2.  Born  in  1769.  Died  unmarried. 

2.  Nancy  Floyd  Powell2.  Born  in  1771.  Married  Dr. 
Robert  Walker,  of  a  prominent  Virginia  family,  March  1,  1792. 
Their  children  were: 

a.  Thomas  Walker3.  Married  and  had  a  son:  Thomas 
Ajax  Walker4  who  removed  to  Alabama,  married  and  had  a  son, 
William  A.  Walker. 

b.  Sallie  Walker3.  Married  Dr.  Henry  Rose  of  Amherst 
County.  They  had  two  children: 

bb1.  Henry  Walker  Rose4.  Died  young. 

bb2.  Nannie  Rose4.  Married  Paul  Cabell  of  Amherst.  They 
had  a  daughter  who  married  John  L.  Lee,  a  prominent  lawyer, 
formerly  of  Amherst;  now  of  Lynchburg,  Virginia. 


100 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


3.  Cornelius  Powell2.  Married  in  the  West  and  died  there, 
leaving  three  children.  These  were  reared  and  educated  by  their 
uncle,  Dr.  James  Powell  of  Amherst,  Virginia.  After  they  were 
full  grown  they  returned  to  their  mother’s  family  in  the  West. 

4.  Richard  Powell2.  Born  May  7,  1775.  Died  unmarried. 

5.  Rhoda  Powell2.  Born  April  15,  1777.  In  December, 
1793,  she  married  Dr.  James  Murray  Brown,  recently  of  Scotland, 
and  a  brother  of  Dr.  Thomas  Brown,  professor  of  moral  philosophy 
in  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  Their  children  were: 

a.  Sarah  Floyd  Brown3.  Born  November  17,  1796,  who 
married,  May  18,  1819,  Archibald  Robertson,  a  wealthy  merchant 
of  Lynchburg,  Virginia.  They  reared  six  sons:  James  M.,  Arthur 
Floyd,  Archibald,  William  B.,  John  B.,  and  Donald;  all  men  of 
superior  intellect,  good  education  and  business  qualifications.  Only 
two  of  them  married: 

aa1.  James  M.  Robertson4.  Married  Fannie  J.  Hart  of 
Albemarle.  Their  children  were:  James  H.,  Frances  and  Thomas 
B.  Robertson5. 

aa2.  John  B.  Robertson4.  Married  Martha  Waller.  Their 
children  were:  John  B.  Jr.,  Sarah,  Martha,  Jean  M.,  William  W., 
Thomas  M.,  Anna  Rose,  and  Bessie  W.  Robertson5. 

OTHER  CHILDREN  OF  RHODA  POWELL  BROWN2 

b.  John  Brown3.  Born  1797,  graduated  in  medicine  at  the 
University  of  Paris  and  became  a  very  successful  practitioner. 
Married  Eliza  Price  of  Caroline  County.  They  had  but  one  child 
who  died  young. 

c.  James  Murray  Brown,  Jr.3  Born  in  1800.  After  gradu¬ 
ating  in  law  he  went  to  Texas  and  commenced  practice  in  Goliad. 
He  soon  became  a  leading  practitioner,  was  made  Judge  of  the 
County  Court,  and  married  Caroline  Harris  of  Goliad.  Their 
children  were: 

cc1.  James  M.  Brown4  Married  Miss  Somers  of  Goliad. 

cc2.  Elizabeth  Brown4.  Married  Wm.  Somers,  a  stockman  of 
Gonzales  County. 

d.  Martha  Brown3.  Born  1807.  Married  Dr.  William  W. 
Thompson  of  Amherst.  They  had  several  children.  No  record 
obtainable. 

e.  Mary  Smith  Brown3.  Born  1809.  Married  Rev.  Andrew 
Hart.  Their  children  were: 

ee1.  Ellen  V.  Hart4.  Married  Starky  Robinson,  Names  of 
children  not  known  to  writer. 


THE  VIRGINIA  FLOYD-POWELL  FAMILY 


IOI 


ee2.  Pauline  Cabell  Hart4.  Married  Mr.  David  Ayers 
of  Salem,  Virginia.  Their  children  were  Andrew  H.  and  Rosa 
Floyd  Ayers5. 

WE  RETURN  TO  THE  CHILDREN  OF  SALLIE  FLOYD  POWELL1 

6.  Maria  Elizabeth  Powell2.  Born  1779.  Married  Dr. 

- Burnton  of  Warren,  Albemarle  County.  Their  children 

were: 

a.  Addison  Burton3.  Married  Miss - Cobbs  of 

Buckingham.  They  had  several  children. 

b.  Maria  Burton3.  Married  John  L.  Marye,  a  very  promi¬ 
nent  citizen  of  Fredericksburg,  Virginia.  They  had  several  sons 
and  daughters,  but  we  have  records  only  of  the  former. 

bb1.  Colonel  Lawrence  S.  Marye4  was  a  gallant  officer  in 
the  War  between  the  States.  He  served  with  distinction  as  an 
officer  of  the  general  staff,  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  and 
also  in  the  West.  He  was  a  graceful  literary  writer  and  an  elo¬ 
quent  lawyer  and  political  speaker.  His  personal  friend,  Ruther¬ 
ford  B.  Hayes,  after  he  had  been  counted  in  as  President  in 
1877,  by  the  Joint  High  Commission  of  five  senators,  five  repre¬ 
sentatives  and  five  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court — statesmen 
and  patriots  all;  but  not  one  able  to  break-away  from  the  play  of 
politics — slated  him  for  an  important  and  lucrative  postmaster¬ 
ship  in  the  South.  But  the  Big  Bosses,  who  won  the  game, 
smashed  the  slate,  and  Mr.  Hayes  had  to  “take  his  seat  and 
behave.”  Colonel  Marye  married  but  left  no  children. 

bb2.  Colonel  Morton  Marye4  was  also  a  gallant  Confederate 
officer.  He  entered  the  service  as  Captain  of  the  Alexandria 
Rifles — Company  “A”  of  the  17th  Virginia  Infantry.  He  was 
promoted  after  the  First  Battle  of  Manassas,  or  Bull  Run,  and 
lost  a  leg  in  the  Second  Manassas,  having  been  in  all  previous 
engagements  in  which  his  command  participated.  Some  years 
after  the  war,  when  Virginia  was  permitted  to  re-establish  her 
State  government,  Colonel  Marye  was  appointed  First  Auditor 
of  the  State.  He  was  as  devoted  and  efficient  in  the  civil  service 
of  The  Old  Mother  as  he  had  been  in  her  military  service,  and  he 
served  her  until  the  day  of  his  death,  December  22,  1910. 

The  family  mansion  of  the  Marye’s  will  be,  for  all  time,  con¬ 
nected  in  history  with  the  battle  of  Federicksburg.  It  stands  on 
an  elevation  westward  of  the  town,  overlooking  the  narrow  valley 
in  which  the  town  is  situated;  and  a  stone  wall  at  the  foot  of  the 


102 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


hill  marks  the  line  between  the  town  and  the  Marye  homestead 
and  farm.  This  wall,  and  a  hastily-made  trench  along  the  Con¬ 
federate  side  of  it,  constituted  the  “  breast- works”  from  which  the 
Confederates  hurled  back  charge  after  charge  of  recklessly  deter¬ 
mined  masses  of  Federal  infantry,  with  such  fearful  slaughter, 
as  they  broke,  like  successive  waves  of  the  sea,  upon  the  thin  line 
of  equally  determined  men  behind  the  slight  obstruction,  that  the 
Confederates  grew  sick  with  horror  at  the  fearful  sights  of  human 
butchery. 

There  are  other  branches  of  the  Marye  and  Burton  families  but 
no  record  of  them  could  be  obtained. 

7.  Dr.  James  Powell2.  Born  in  Amherst  County  April  8, 
1782.  He  graduated  in  medicine  and  for  seventy  years  was  a 
leading  practitioner  in  his  section,  noted  scarcely  more  for  his  skill 
and  success  in  his  profession,  which  were  very  great,  than  for  his 
public  spirit  and  deeds  of  charity.  On  May  15,  1807,  he  married 
Mildred  Irving  of  Buckingham  County,  Virginia.  Their  children 
were  six  sons  and  eight  daughters.  All  of  the  sons  with  the  excep¬ 
tion  of  one  died  in  boyhood  or  early  manhood.  The  one  excep¬ 
tion  was: 

a.  Paulus  Powell3.  A  man  of  considerable  ability  and 
popularity.  He  served  his  people  in  the  State  Legislature  for 
eight  consecutive  years  and  was  then  sent  to  Congress  where  he 
served  eight  additional  years  before  retiring  from  public  life.  He 
died  unmarried,  and  though  the  descendants  of  Sallie  Floyd 
Powell1  are  scattered  over  the  greater  portion  of  the  southern 
United  States,  he  was  the  last  male  descendant  of  hers,  bearing 
the  Powell  name,  in  the  State  of  Virginia.  Somewhere  in  the 
west  or  southwest  the  three  orphan  sons  of  Cornelius  Powell2, 
whom  Dr.  James  Powell2,  his  brother,  adopted  and  educated, 
may  have  married  and  perpetuated  the  Powell  name. 

b.  Sallie  Floyd  Powell3.  Eldest  daughter  of  Dr.  James 
Powell2,  married  William  Alexander  Scott  of  Buckingham.  They 
had  several  children: 

bb1.  James  Powell  Scott4.  Was  a  gallant  soldier  of  the  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia.  Killed  at  Petersburg. 

bb2.  Charles  A.  Scott4  and  William  A.  Scott4.  Were  also 
faithful  soldiers  in  General  Lee’s  army.  The  former  married 
Bessie,  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Samuel  Scott. 

c.  Mildred  Powell3.  Second  daughter  of  Dr.  James  Powell, 
married  Samuel  Meredith  Garland  of  Amherst,  a  grandnephew  of 
Patrick  Henry.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  Constitutional 


THE  VIRGINIA  FLO  YD-PO  WELL  FAMILY  103 

Convention  of  1850  and  also  of  the  Convention  of  1861  in  which 
Virginia  decided  to  join  her  sister  States  in  withdrawing  from  a 
“Union”  which  really  existed  only  in  name.  Their  children  were: 

cc1.  Mildred  Garland4.  Married  John  Thomas  Ellis  of 
Amherst.  He  was  Colonel  of  the  19th  Virginia  Infantry,  A.  N.  V., 
and  was  killed  gallantly  leading  his  regiment  in  a  charge  at  Gettys¬ 
burg.  His  daughter: 

ccc1.  Mildred  Ellis5.  Married  Professor  H.  A.  Strode  of 
Kenmore  High  School,  Amherst,  Virginia.  Their  son: 

cccc1.  Hon.  Aubrey  E.  Strode6  is  a  prominent  and  eloquent 
young  lawyer  of  Lynchburg,  Virginia.  At  college  he  won  the 
gold  medal  offered  for  excellence  in  oratory  by  an  association  of 
Southern  colleges. 

cc2.  Martha  Garland4.  Married  Hon.  Thomas  Whitehead, 
a  gallant  officer  in  General  Lee’s  army  and  an  able  representative 
of  the  Lynchburg  district  in  Congress.  He  served  as  Colonel  of 
the  Second  Virginia  Cavalry  and  after  the  war  he  established  the 
Lynchburg  Advance  which  he  edited  with  marked  ability.  Later 
he  was  appointed  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  for  the  State,  which 
office  he  filled  with  ability  until  the  end  of  his  life.  Their  children 
are: 

ccc1.  John  Whitehead5.  Resides  in  Norfolk  and  represents 
that  city  ably  in  the  Legislature.  He  is  a  successful  man,  is  mar¬ 
ried  and  has  a  growing  family. 

ccc2.  Mildred  Whitehead5.  Married  John  W.  Murrell,  a 
popular  editorial  writer  of  Richmond,  Virginia.  Their  son  has 
graduated  in  medicine  and  is  the  resident  physician  at  the  city  alms¬ 
house. 

The  other  members  of  the  family  are  Thomas  and  Irving  White- 
head,  who  are  successful  practitioners  of  law  in  Lynchburg,  Vir¬ 
ginia;  David,  who  is  in  business  in  Richmond,  married  Miss 
Brown  of  Ashland;  Mary  is  a  professional  nurse;  Sarah  married 
Mr.  Henry  Perkins  and  Martha  is  the  wife  of  the  talented  young 
physician  Dr.  Stuart  Michaux  of  Richmond. 

cc3.  Rev.  James  Powell  Garland,  D.D.4  Married  Lucy 
Braxton  of  Fredericksburg.  He  was  long  the  Presiding  Elder  of 
the  Methodist  Church  in  the  Richmond  District  and  later  served 
in  the  same  capacity  in  the  Lynchburg  District.  Their  children 
are: 

ccc1.  Maria  Garland5.  Married  Mr.  H.  H.  Harwood  a  suc¬ 
cessful  business  man  of  Lynchburg,  Virginia.  They  have  a  son  and 
daughter. 


104 


FLOYD  BIOGRAPHICAL  GENEALOGIES 


ccc2.  Mildred  H.  Garland6.  Married  Hon.  George  Murrell 
of  Bedford  County,  a  scientific  farmer  and  horticulturist  who  makes 
a  specialty  of  fruit  growing. 

ccc3.  Samuel  Garland6.  Married  in  the  far  Northwest  and 
has  made  his  home  there. 

ccc4.  David  Garland6.  Married  in  New  York  and  resides  in 
that  city.  There  is  another  son  of  whom  we  have  no  information. 

cc4.  Ella  Garland4.  Married  Henry  Wills  of  Nelson  County. 
Their  son,  Waller  Garland  Wills6  married  Miss  Emma  Radford 
Chalmers  of  Bedford  County.  Mr.  Wills  is  a  prosperous  mer¬ 
chant  of  Lynchburg,  Virginia.  Their  children  are:  Emma  Norvell; 
Waller  Garland,  Jr.,  and  William  Chalmers  Wills6. 

cc6.  Jane  Garland4.  Married  Willis  Wills  of  Nelson  County. 
They  have  several  children.  Two  Garland  brothers,  David  and 
Samuel  (cc6  and  cc7)  were  gallant  soldiers,  both  of  whom  lost 
their  lives  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

cc8.  Elizabeth  Garland4.  Married  Rev.  R.  T.  Wilson. 
They  reared  a  large  family. 

cc9  Paulus  Garland4.  Married  Miss  Lucy  Ellis  of  Amherst. 
They  had  several  children. 

d.  Jane  Powell3.  Another  daughter  of  Dr.  James  Powell2, 
married  William  Price  Read  of  Bedford.  Their  children  were: 

dd1.  Nannie  Read4.  Married  Mr.  Worrell  of  Philadelphia. 
They  have  two  children,  William  and  Ella;  both  married. 

dd2.  Willie  Price  Read4.  Married  Breckenridge  Cabell  of 
Virginia.  They  reside  in  New  York  and  have  a  large  family. 

dd3.  Edward  Gaines  Read4.  Was  a  lieutenant  and  did  admir¬ 
able  service  in  the  Confederate  Navy. 

e.  Elizabeth  Powell3.  Youngest  child  of  Dr.  James  Powell2, 
married  Judge  Samuel  Henry  of  Amherst  County  a  nephew  of 
Patrick  Henry.  They  had  several  children,  the  youngest  of  whom, 
William  Henry4,  married  a  lady  of  Baltimore  and  settled  in  that 
city. 

8.  Sarah  Wyatt  Powell2.  Born  in  1781,  the  youngest 
child  of  Sallie  Floyd1  and  her  husband  Wyatt  Powell,  married, 
March  30,  1803,  Captain  John  Coleman.  The  children  and 
descendants  who  lived  to  maturity  and  of  whom  information  could 
be  obtained  are: 

a.  James  Powell  Coleman3.  Married  a  relative,  Bettie 
Ann  Coleman  of  Caroline  County.  They  had  one  daughter: 

aa1.  Bettie  Floyd  Coleman4.  Married  Walker  Hite.  Their 
children  were: 


THE  VIRGINIA  FLOYD-POWELL  FAMILY 


105 


aaa1.  James  Floyd  Hite5  and  George  Smith  Hite6. 

b.  Cornelia  Powell  Coleman3.  Married  Marshall  Alder- 
son  and  settled  in  Greenbrier  County,  West  Virginia. 

c.  Eliza  Floyd  Coleman3.  Married  Lewis  Alderson  of  West 
Virginia.  Their  children  were:  John  C.,  born  October  29,  1839; 
Floyd  W.,  born  April  21,  1842;  Irving  N.,  born  July  24,  1845; 
Mary  Cornelia,  born  October  19,  1848;  Walter  W.,  born  May  13, 
1856,  and  Lewis  A.  Alderson4,  born  September  12,  1861. 

The  latter  youngster  might  very  appropriately  have  been 
named  John  Buchanan  Floyd,  as  his  third  cousin,  the  general  of 
that  name,  a  couple  of  days  before  his  birth  was  arousing  the  echoes 
of  the  West  Virginia  mountains  in  his  noted  battle  with  General 
Rosecrans. 


APPENDIX 


Elizabeth  Floyd  Tuley1 

It  is  recorded  on  page  15  that  Elizabeth  Floyd,1  second  daughter  of  William 
Floyd  and  Abadiah  Davis,  married  Charles  Tuley  of  Fauquier  County,  Virginia. 
There  was  among  the  Virginia  Floyds  no  certain  knowledge  of  her  descendants 
until,  within  the  past  year,  the  writer  received,  from  her  great-grandson,  William 
Floyd  Tuley,  a  neat  little  volume,  written  and  published  by  himself  in  his  town, 
New  Albany,  Indiana,  called  “The  Tuley  Family  Memoirs,”  in  which  is  given  the 
family  genealogies,  with  brief  biographical  sketches,  and  neatly  executed  half¬ 
tone  likenesses  of  quite  a  number  of  distinguished  Tulies,  including  several  judges 
of  State  courts  and  a  number  of  more  or  less  distinguished  military,  professional, 
literary  and  business  men. 

The  Tuleys — pronounced  with  the  long  u:  Tuley — were  French  Huguenots  who 
fled  to  England  after  the  St.  Bartholomew  massacre  in  1572.  Three  brothers  of 
the  name  came  to  America  about  1675,  one  of  whom,  Peter  Tuley,  settled  in  Pow¬ 
hatan  County,  Virginia.  A  generation  later  Jonathan  Tuley  settled  at  Millwood, 
Clark  County,  Virginia,  where  he  acquired  a  large  landed  estate.  Two  generations 
later  Colonel  Joseph  Tuley,  a  grandson  of  the  first  owner,  came  into  possession  of 
the  property  and  erected  thereon  a  magnificent  mansion  of  cut  stone  faced  with 
marble,  with  double  storied  porches  supported  by  tall  Corinthian  columns  thirty 
feet  in  height.  On  account  of  the  magnificence  and  beauty  of  the  mansion  and 
its  surroundings,  and  in  honor  of  the  family,  it  came  to  be  known  as  the  “  T uleyries.” 

Mrs.  Tuley,  nee  Mary  W.  Jackson,  was  a  woman  of  rare  beauty  and  accomplish¬ 
ments,  and  was  one  of  the  leading  court  beauties  at  Washington,  during  several 
administrations,  including  that  of  President  Jackson.  The  Court  Beauties  of  Wash¬ 
ington,  a  book  now  very  rare,  has  a  full  page  ornamented  with  her  portrait. 

Charles  Tuley  and  his  wife  Elizabeth  Floyd1  did  not  join  the  Floyds  in  Kentucky 
until  1783.  In  that  year,  with  seven  small  children,  they  settled  on  Floyd’s  Fork 
of  Salt  River,  where  Mr.  Tuley  had  already  prepared  a  home  for  them  surrounded 
on  all  sides  by  the  Floyd  kin.  They  reared  a  large  family,  most  of  whom  ultimately 
crossed  the  Ohio  River  and  scattered  over  Indiana,  Illinois  and  westward  regions. 

Among  the  notable  names  found  in  The  Tuley  Family  Memoirs  that  of  William 
Floyd  Tuley,  the  author,  is  by  no  means  the  least  notable.  At  the  time  that  Mark 
Twain  was  studying  the  art  of  piloting  and  sounding  the  amusing  side  of  human 
nature,  young  Tuley,  under  the  tutelage  of  his  uncle,  Captain  Israel  C.  Woodruff, 
was  sounding  the  shoals  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers,  and  studying  to  make 
himself  the  superior  of  even  Mark  Twain,  in  their  chosen  profession.  After  the 
commencement  of  the  War  between  the  States  he  was  appointed  master  and  pilot 
in  the  Mississippi  Squadron  and  served  under  Admirals  Foote,  Davis,  Farrigut 
and  Porter.  Under  the  latter  he  led  the  fleet  when  it  ran  the  batteries  at  Vicks¬ 
burg  in  1863,  to  attack  Grand  Gulf  and  ferry  Grant’s  army  across  the  river  to  attack 
Vicksburg. 


107 


io8 


APPENDIX 


He  participated  in  many  notable  engagements,  but  there  is  no  mention  of  his 
having  taken  part  with  Admiral  Porter  in  the  capture  of  Arkansas  Post.  It  is 
likely  that  there  was  nothing  for  the  fleet  to  do  there  beyond  firing  a  few  big  guns 
to  add  to  the  grandeur  of  the  occasion.  A  force  of  30,000  well  armed  and  equipped 
infantry  and  artillery,  was  sufficient  to  overpower  a  force  of  5,000  poorly  armed 
and  provisioned  Confederates  without  the  aid  of  a  fleet,  and  perhaps  young  Tuley 
had  no  opportunity  to  exchange  compliments  of  the  occasion  with  his  father’s 
second  cousin,  Colonel  N.  B.  Floyd,  on  the  Confederate  side  in  the  fight. 

After  the  war  Mr.  Tuley  became  an  editorial  writer  and  is  still  engaged  in  literary 
work.  He  is  a  past  Commander  of  the  New  Albany  Commandery,  Knights  Tem¬ 
plar,  and  a  grandfather  who  has  shown  just  cause  to  be  proud  of  his  “seed,  breed 
and  generation,”  who  evince  no  indication  of  having  deteriorated  from  the  enter¬ 
prising  and  sturdy  stock  which  helped  to  blaze  the  way  through  the  western  wilds 
and  to  carve  the  Indiana  Territory  into  sovereign  States. 


The  Georgia  Floyds 

Many  genealogists  have  puzzled  over  the  connecting  link,  and  the  degree  of 
relationship,  between  the  Floyds  of  Virginia  and  their  Georgia  cousins.  All  Vir¬ 
ginia  genealogies  tell  of  three  brothers,  William,  Charles  and  Frederick  who  settled 
in  Accomac  and  Northampton  Counties;  and  of  John  who  joined  them  and  bought 
a  large  boundary  of  land.  Then  with  one  accord  the  next  sentence  says:  “John 
went  north,  Charles  went  to  Georgia  and  William  settled  in  Amherst  County,”  etc. 

In  the  distant  past  some  transcriber  of  the  family  traditions  must  have  lost  a 
page  between  the  two  sentences.  It  is  well  known  to  all  that  the  Eastern  Shore 
brothers  commenced  their  activities  about  1675;  and  it  is  positively  known  that 
William  Floyd  did  not  settle  in  Amherst  County  earlier  than  1745.  Careful  re¬ 
search  also  brings  to  light  the  fact  that  the  persons  grouped  in  the  second  sentence 
were  not  brothers,  scattering  from  home  to  diflerent  points  of  the  compass,  but 
were  a  surveying  party  headed  by  William  Floyd  who  had  the  assistance,  in  an  im¬ 
portant  work  along  the  valley  of  James  River,  of  his  two  cousins,  John  and  Charles 
Floyd — the  latter  a  mere  youth.  And  the  scattering  was  only  the  disbanding  of  the 
party  after  several  months  of  strenuous  work  ending  at  Balcony  Falls,  where  the 
river  breaks  through  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains.  It  is  true  that  John  did,  later,  go 
north  and  beyond  the  ken  of  family  tradition;  and  that  Charles,  after  a  period  of 
stirring  adventures  in  distant  seas  and  lands,  did  settle  down  quietly  and  comfort¬ 
ably  in  Georgia. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Mrs.  Jule  Floyd  Noyes,  a  Georgia  kinswoman  whom  the 
writer  accidentally  met  in  Florida,  he  became  the  possessor  of  A  Little  Family  His¬ 
tory  written  by  Mrs.  Mary  Floyd  Hamilton — born  in  Georgia,  1 795 — a  granddaugh¬ 
ter  of  Charles,  the  youngster  of  the  surveying  party.  She  says  her  grandfather, 
Charles  Floyd,  was  left  an  orphan  when  quite  young,  and  going  to  Norfolk,  just 
across  the  Chesapeake  Bay  from  his  home  in  Northampton  County,  he  shipped 
upon  a  sailing  vessel  fitting  out  for  a  trading  trip  voyage  of  several  years  to  the  south 
coast  of  Africa.  After  he  grew  weary  of  “following  the  sea”  he  settled  in  South 
Carolina  and  became  a  successful  indigo  planter.  He  married  Miss  Mary  Fendon, 
“a  young  lady  of  excellent  family,”  and  after  the  birth  of  their  son,  John,  they 
removed  to  McIntosh  County,  Georgia,  near  the  village  of  Darien. 

This  agrees  fully  with  information  contained  in  a  letter  written  by  Mrs.  Mary 
Floyd  McAdoo  of  61,  Canton  Avenue,  Irvington,  New  York;  the  aged  mother  01 


APPENDIX 


109 

the  talented  lawyer,  engineer,  financier,  orator  and  all-around  business  man,  Wil¬ 
liam  Gibbes  McAdoo,  who  going  to  New  York,  a  stranger  from  the  “impecunious 
and  rebellious  South,”  has  won  the  confidence  and  backing  of  a  multitude  of  mil¬ 
lionaires  who  have  furnished  him  multiplied  millions  of  money  with  which  he  has 
honeycombed  the  Hudson  River,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  New  York  City, 
with  subways  to  relieve  the  congested  passenger  traffic  of  that  great  metropolis. 
Mrs.  McAdoo  is  an  octogenarian,  and  it  may  be  inferred  from  the  matter  and  style 
of  her  letter,  that  Father  Time  has  been  as  gentle  and  lenient  with  her  as  with  so 
many  of  the  Floyd  gentlewomen  of  the  past  generations.  Speaking  of  her  own 
line  she  says: 

“Our  great-great-grandparents  were  Samuel  Floyd  and  Susan  Dixon.  These 
had  three  children,  Elizabeth  John  and  Charles — the  latter  about  ten  years  of  age 
when  his  parents  died,  both  on  the  same  day.  Charles  went  to  sea  and  had  a  strange 
adventurous  life.  He  settled  in  South  Carolina  and  married  Mary  Fendon.  Their 
only  child  our  grandfather  was  born  there  at  Hilton  Head  Island.  He  married 
Isabella  Hazard  and  removed  to  Georgia  where  all  the  family  were  born.  This 
was  General  John  Floyd,  a  very  prominent  man  in  his  day.  He  was  a  member  of 
Congress  in  1828;  and  there  was  also  John  Floyd  of  Virginia,  some  time  governor  of 
that  State.  These  men  resembled  strongly,  even  in  voice,  and  were  often  mistaken 
for  each  other.  They  were  cousins,  I  do  not  know  in  what  degree.” 

These  clear  statements  in  connection  with  the  Virignia  genealogies  make  the 
fact  clear  that  William  the  surveyor, — 1745 — being  a  first  cousin  of  Charles  the 
youthful  chain-carrier  of  the  enterprise,  their  sons — the  noted  Virginia-Kentucky 
Floyds,  and  the  noted  General  John  Floyd  of  Darien,  Georgia,  were  second  cousins. 
Governor  John  Floyd  of  Virginia,  being  of  the  next  generation  was,  of  course,  one 
remove  from  a  second  cousin  to  his  distinguished  associate  in  Congress. 

It  is  a  rather  singular  fact  that  a  large  majority  of  the  noted  Floyds  had  the  name 
of  “John,”  beginning,  in  America,  with  John  of  Accomac  and  Northampton.  He, 
however,  so  far  as  is  now  known,  was  noted  only  for  his  wealth,  and  as  the  first 
American  blazoner  of  the  Floyd  Coat  of  Arms.  The  name  “Charles”  comes  in 
as  a  good  second. 

JOHN  “WHO  WENT  NORTH” 

Tentative  efforts  to  find  a  trace  of  John  Floyd,  of  the  surveying  party  (1745), 
elder  brother  of  Charles,  of  the  same  party  who  “went  to  Georgia,”  resulted  in  a 
delayed  letter  from  Governor  Charles  M.  Floyd  of  New  Hampshire,  in  which  he 
says  his  father  died  when  he  was  a  small  boy  and  consequently  he  has  no  tradition 
of  his  paternal  ancestors  beyond  his  grandfather  John  Floyd,  who  was  born  in  the 
little  town  of  Derry,  New  Hampshire,  and  died  there  in  1832.  The  supposition 
that  he  was  about  seventy-five  years  old,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  makes  his  birth 
period  about  1757,  just  twelve  years  after  the  disbanding  of  the  Floyd  surveying 
party  in  Amherst  County,  Virginia,  at  which  time  John  “who  went  north,”  elder 
brother  of  Charles,  was  about  sixteen  years  of  age.  Perhaps,  when  he  started  north 
the  wanderlust,  which  sometimes  inflames  the  blood  of  his  family,  carried  him  as 
far  north  as  the  little  town  of  Derry  where  it  became  satiated.  And  putting  aside 
his  “seven  league  boots,”  he  married,  and  being  then  not  less  than  twenty-eight 
years  of  age,  he  set  about  making  a  permanent  home  for  himself  and  his  posterity. 

Reflection  on  these  matters,  and  the  fact  that  the  two  most  popular  names  of 
both  the  Virginia  and  Georgia  families — John  and  Charles — have  been  perpetuated 
in  this  New  Hampshire  family,  impresses  the  writer  with  the  belief  that  he  has 


no 


APPENDIX 


discovered  the  “long-lost  brother”  of  Charles  “who  went  to  Georgia,”  in  the  person 
of  the  father  of  Governor  Charles  M.  Floyd’s  grandfather. 

Circumstantial  evidence,  less  strong,  has  convicted  many  a  man  of  a  more 
serious  mistake  in  life  than  turning  his  back  on  the  smiling  valleys  of  Old  Virginia, 
and  making  his  home  among  the  bleak  hills  of  New  Hampshire.  And  the  duty 
seems  to  devolve  upon  the  Virginia  and  Georgia  families  to  overlook  the  one  uncon¬ 
sidered  act  of  the  great-grandfather  and  extend  the  cordial  hand  of  kinship  to  Gov¬ 
ernor  Charles  M.  Floyd  of  New  Hampshire. 


The  Floyd  Coat  of  Arms 

Described  in  the  Herald’s  office,  London,  as:  Argent,  a  cross,  sable.  Crest,  A 
Griffin  sejant,  azure,  holding  in  dexter  paw  a  garland  of  laurel,  ppr.  (see  pages  8-9). 

The  above  is  given  for  the  gratification  of  such  youngsters  of  the  family,  as  take 
interest  in  the  vanities  of  past  generations.  Yet  heraldry  and  the  cultivation  of 
family  pride — “pride  of  caste,”  if  some  choose  to  call  it  so — serves  a  commendable 
and  valuable  purpose  if  it  shall  teach  passing  generations  that  they  owe  an  obliga¬ 
tion  to  those  who  have  gone  before,  as  well  as  a  duty  to  those  who  are  to  come  after 
them.  The  poet  Burns,  an  humble  Scotch  farmer,  has  told  us  “The  rank  is  but 
the  guinea’s  stamp,”  and  the  inference  follows  that  the  duty  devolves  upon  the 
individual  to  furnish  the  fine  gold  of  character  which  alone  can  give  value  to  the 
stamp,  and  prevent  the  coin  from  being  contemned  as  spurious.  The  guinea 
must  have  the  true  ring,  and  stand  the  test  of  acid.  But  the  gold  without  the 
stamp  is  equally  valuable,  intrinsically. 


APPENDIX 


III 


This  blazonry  was  done  by  a  competent  heraldist  of  Baltimore,  and  is  absolutely 
correct.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  writer  to  give,  as  an  interesting  curiosity,  a 
reproduction  of  the  blazonry  made  by  John  Floyd  of  Accomac  and  Northampton 
in  1675,  but  a  long  treasured  copy  has  disappeared  from  among  his  papers  much  to 
his  regret.  A  reference  to  it  will  be  found  on  pages  8-9. 

Likenesses  of  Floyds  of  Past  Generations 

We  give  in  the  frontispiece  a  group  of  all  the  likenesses  the  writer  has  been 
able  to  obtain — in  addition  to  the  sketch  on  page  26— of  the  older  generations  from 
William  of  Amherst,  (1720-1779).  Heading  the  page  is  Colonel  John  Floyd)1 
(1751-1783)  the  most  distinguished  member  of  his  generation.  This  was  copied 
from  an  old  crayon  drawing  in  the  library  of  Colonel  R.  T.  Durette  of  Louisville, 
Kentucky,  and  has  been  slightly  renovated  by  a  Baltimore  artist.  Colonel  Durette 
states  that  it  was  purchased,  many  years  ago,  at  a  sale  of  the  effects  of  an  old  settler 
in  that  vicinity.  He  has  been  unable  to  learn  anything  definite  about  its  history, 
but  is  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  it  was  executed  in  Paris,  as  Kentucky  was  but 
little  more  than  an  unbroken  forest  at  the  time  of  his  murder  by  the  Indians. 

When  Colonel  Floyd  escaped  from  the  English  prison  and  made  his  way  to  Paris 
he  was  received  by  our  Minister  at  the  Court  of  Louis  XVI,  Dr.  Benjamin  Franklin, 
with  great  cordiality  and  friendliness;  and  it  is  believed  he  procured  for  him  an 
audience  at  Court.  At  any  rate,  Marie  Antoinette,  the  queen,  a  romantic  girl  of 
twenty-three  years,  became  interested  in  his  history  and  adventures,  and  before  his 
departure  sent  him,  through  Dr.  Franklin,  a  purse  of  gold  coins  of  the  value  of  sixty 
pounds  sterling,  English  money.  Out  of  this  he  bought  for  his  sweetheart,  in  Vir¬ 
ginia,  the  beautiful  Sallie  Buchanan — who  believed  him  to  be  slumbering  beneath 
“the  sad  sea  waves” — a  pair  of  shoe  buckles  of  the  Court  style,  studded  with  bril¬ 
liants.  Being  a  gallant  lover  the  young  man  could  not  have  failed  to  know  that  his 
lady  love  would  prize  his  likeness  far  above  any  article  of  personal  adornment.  The 
unsolvable  thing  about  the  likeness  is  how  it  got  into  the  possession  of  an  old  settler 
who  was  not  allied  to  the  family. 


The  likeness  of  Nathaniel  Floyd1  (1767-1842)  is  the  third,  of  the  first  genera¬ 
tion  from  William  Floyd,  which  the  writer  has  been  successful  in  ferreting  out  and 
securing  a  copy  of,  for  this  work.  It  is  believed  to  have  been  made  in  New  Orleans 
after  the  memorable  battle  near  that  city,  January  8,  1815,  in  which  he  took  an 
active  part.  An  old  Kentucky  tradition,  heard  by  the  writer,  more  than  three 
score  and  ten  years  ago  says;  when  General  Jackson  made  his  first  attack  upon  the 
British — a  night  surprise  on  January  the  first,  eight  miles  below  the  city — the  Ken¬ 
tuckians,  on  the  extreme  left  wing  of  the  attacking  force,  were  being  crowded  in  the 
darkness,  into  a  boggy  swamp  on  their  left,  by  the  Tennesseeans  on  their  right,  it 
was  “Squire”  Floyd’s  vehement  and  stentorian  protest: — “Bear  to  the  right! 
D —  you;  bear  to  the  right!!”  which  was,  fortunately,  mistaken  by  the  Tennesseeans 
for  an  order  in  General  Jackson’s  own  voice,  that  saved  the  Kentuckians  from  get¬ 
ting  “stuck  in  the  mud.”  Some  of  them  did  not  entirely  escape  the  mud,  but  they 
were  in  time  to  be  among  the  first  to  mix  up  with  the  “Britishers”  while  they  were 
trying  to  stamp  out  the  light  of  their  camp  fires. 

The  picture  came  down  to  the  present  generation  through  the  family  of  the  old 
gentleman’s  great-grandson,  J.  B.  Floyd  Shock,  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  who  kindly 
furnished  a  copy  made  by  an  expert  artist  of  his  city. 


1 1 2 


APPENDIX 


The  first  in  seniority  of  the  second  generation  is  Governor  John  Floyd2  (1783- 
1837).  This  was  photographed  from  a  portrait  now  in  the  State  library,  Richmond, 
Virginia,  painted  for  the  family  by  a  noted  artist  of  that  day.  It  was  presented  to 
the  State  by  a  member  of  the  family. 


Doctor  Nathaniel  Wilson  Floyd2  (1793-1866)  is  the  second  in  seniority  of  the 
second  generation.  His  picture  was  copied  from  an  old  Daguerreotype  taken  about 
the  middle  of  the  last  century.  The  copying  artist  gave  it  a  soft  finish  which  did 
not  respond  satisfactorily  to  the  photographer’s  art  of  the  present  day;  but  the 
likeness  is  fairly  good. 


The  youngest  of  the  group,  General  John  Buchanan  Floyd5  (1807-1863) 
while  a  member  of  President  Buchanan’s  Cabinet,  had  several  photographs  made, 
by  request,  from  which  a  bust  was  executed  and  placed  in  the  Capitol  at  Washing¬ 
ton.  The  picture  presented  is  a  copy  of  one  of  those  which  was  preserved  in  Brady’s 
National  Portrait  Gallery,  New  York;  and  is  strikingly  lifelike. 


The  other  group,  opposite  page  70,  is  composed  of  four  Virginia  brothers  of  the 
third  generation  who  served  as  Confederate  soldiers  in  the  War  between  the  States, 
as  long  as  life  or  physical  ability  endured,  and  there  was  a  semblance  of  duty  to  be 
performed. 

The  eldest,  Charles  Anderson  Floyd5  (1821-1865)  was  photographed  in  camp 
a  short  time  before  he  was  killed  in  the  repulse  of  Grant’s  attack  on  the  right  flank 
of  the  small  remnant  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  three  days  before  the  general 
collapse  at  Appomattox,  1865. 


The  second,  Nathaniel  Bedford  Floyd3  (1826),  was  taken  in  1864,  presumably 
in  Matamoros,  Mexico,  while  he  was  an  officer  of  the  general  staff,  assigned  to  the 
performance  of  a  special  duty  in  connection  with  the  ordnance  department. 


The  third, Nicholas  Jackson  Floyd5  (1828), was  taken  after  the  Battle  of  the 
Crater,  Petersburg,  1864,  as  he  passed  through  Lynchburg,  en  route  to  the  Trans- 
Mississippi  Department.  It  was  taken  on  a  thin  metallic  plate  and  set  in  a  small 
breastpin  encircled  by  a  double  row  of  pearls,  as  a  parting  gift  for  his  aged 
mother.  The  printed  copy  is  very  much  enlarged,  but  the  artist  has  preserved  the 
likeness  fairly  well. 


The  fourth  and  last,  John  Buchanan  Floyd3  (1838-1902),  was  taken  after  the 
war,  and  after  he  had  succeeded  in  procuring  a  suit  of  citizen’s  clothing  of  proper 
size.  He  and  all  the  brothers  were  over  six  feet  tall  excepting  the  third,  who  was 
just  “six  feet  in  his  boots.” 


APPENDIX 


ir3 


A  LAST  WORD  WITH  THE  READER 

The  writer,  compiler  and  publisher  of  a  limited  number  of  copies  of  this  work, 
which  was  undertaken  “without  a  hope  or  scarce  a  thought”  with  reference 
to  ultimate  reimbursement  of  expenditures,  now  that  he  is  about  to  “cease  from 
troubling”  after  years  of  patient,  persevering  (though  only  moderately  successful 
and  satisfactory)  efforts  to  unravel  the  tangled  web  of  family  traditions,  and  bring 
to  light  the  lost  threads  of  family  history,  feels  that  he  is  fairly  entitled  to  a  grand¬ 
father’s  privilege  of  saying  a  few  last  words  in  the  form  of  advice. 

He  would  recommend  to  the  readers  of  these  lines  who  may  agree  with  his  ideas 
of  the  usefulness  of  cultivating  family  pride  and  loyalty  as  a  means  of  elevating  the 
individual  character,  that  they  do  not  depend  solely  upon  the  lists  of  marriages, 
births  and  deaths  usually  kept  in  family  Bibles,  nor  upon  the  recorded  deeds  and 
wills  to  be  found  in  the  county  clerk’s  offices,  for  the  preservation  of  family  geneal¬ 
ogies  and  history.  At  least  one  member  of  each  family  should  prepare  a  family 
blank-book  as  a  receptacle  for  all  important  family  records,  and  to  be  handed  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  as  a  valuable  heirloom,  ever  increasing  in  value,  as 
time  and  generations  pass. 

As  a  modest  starter  and  help  toward  inaugurating  the  plan  recommended,  a 
number  of  blank  pages  are  bound  with  this  volume.  If  they  shall  be  used  as  sug¬ 
gested,  and  the  plan  be  adhered  to  and  continued,  then  in  the  distant  future,  when 
some  venturesome  spirit  shall  essay  to  gather  new  and  up-to-date  biographical 
genealogies,  he  need  not  be  under  the  necessity  of  launching  his  frail  literary  craft 
upon  uncharted  waters  in  quest  of  an  Ultima  Thule  which  has  become  lost  in  the 
mists  of  forgotten  traditions. 


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929.2  F645 


268140 


